Cucumber, Soil temperature, Drip irrigation, Surface irrigation, Mulch.

This experiment was conducted in 2008 at Teezen Research Station, Hama Research Center, The General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Syrian Arab Republic, in order to study the effect of two types of plastic mulch (transparent and black) on cucumber yield. Soil characteristics and soil and air temperatures were recorded during the experiment to find out the reasons for the effect of mulch. Four treatments (transparent mulch & drip irrigation, black mulch & drip irrigation, without mulch & drip irrigation, without mulch & surface furrow irrigation) were arranged in a randomized complete block design. Results inidicated that plastic mulch generally raised minimum soil temperature at 8 A.M. and maximum soil temperature at 14 P.M., which enhanced cucumber vegetative growth and significantly doubled its productivity compared with the two treatments of no mulch. Using the transparent mulch increased the minimum soil temperature at 10 cm depth about 10˚C and the maximum temperature about 11˚C and resulted in the highest yield, followed by the black mulch which increased soil temperature at the same depth about 8.5˚C. This was accompanied by improved vegetative growth and yield )34%, 16% and 2%) for treatments using drip irrigation (transparent mulch, black mulch and without mulch, respectively) compared with the control (without mulch and surface furrow irrigation).