Determination of the relationships among electrical conductivity, humidity and temperature values of some agricultural products during the process of drying

Knowledge of biological, chemical and physical characteristics of agricultural products takes and important role in cultivation, evaluation and marketing processes of those products. Up to dateness of organic agriculture and decrease in demand for unseasoned products raises the importance of dried products. Thus, knowledge of some physical features about drying processes of major products like tomato, pepper and aubergine is important. It is necessary to know the relationship between electrical conductivity and humidity feature, which is a major data source, during the process of cultivation and marketing of those products. Electrical conductivity values have a significant role in packing of products and designing of packing machines as a data source. In this study; electrical conductivity, humidity and temperature values of tomato, pepper and aubergine which are in drying process were measured and relationships between those values have been searched. Besides, meteorological values like air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and sun radiation were measured and their effect on products which are in drying process were analysed. Species of Dorit tomato, Demre Sivrisi pepper and Aydin Siyahi aubergine have been used in experiments. Drying process have been realised after some preprocesses on products had been implemented. Due to the convenient season conditions, drying experiments have been realised in two seperate time periods which are the end of summer (15 October ? 18 October ) and begining of summer (24 May- 25 May). As a result, it has been ascertained that the periodical relationships between electrical conductivity and product humidity is R2=0,904, R2=0,964 for tomato; R2=0,728, R2=0,735 for pepper; R2=0,685, R2=0,889 for aubergine and there is no relationship between electrical conductivity, product temperature and meteorological variables.