Decision support system for greenhouse seedling production

A decision support system was developed for greenhouse seedling production by incorporating tomato seedling growth models to attain the desired dry weight of tomato seedlings at the time of transplant. Tomato seedlings were produced in a greenhouse to develop growth models, which were divided into emergence, and post emergence. These mathematical models were used to develop a decision making process in the form of a DSS. The DSS was developed in visual basic 6.0. The DSS has two modules long term planning and daily temperature management. The former module deals with the long term planning of seedling production and advice on average temperature and supplementary light depending on users input, while the other module deals with daily temperature management and advice on hour to hour for temperature control strategies as per the prevailing environmental and greenhouse conditions, and required temperature conditions to achieve the predefined target of seedling growth in terms of days required for seedling production. The developed algorithms attempt to maximum use of ambient conditions and minimum use of supplementary expensive energy. The feature not only hardens the seedlings but also reduces the cost of seedlings hardening.