In recent years, numerous crops have been found to improve their productivity and fruit quality when grown under colored (photo-selective) shade nets. The colored sunshade nets have been developed during the past decade to filter selected regions of the spectrum of sunlight, concomitantly with inducing light scattering. They are designed specifically to modify the incident radiation (spectrum, scattering and thermal components). Depending on the pigmentation of the plastic threads and the knitting design, these nets provide varying mixtures of natural, unmodified light, together with spectrally modified scattered light. They are aimed at optimizing desirable physiological responses, in addition to providing physical protection to the crop.
