Agronomic evaluation of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) hybrids

Abstract

Objectives:  to evaluate yield and quality of eight ‘slicer’ type cucumber hybrids grown under greenhouse conditions in Alajuela, Costa Rica.  Methodology:  the plants were planted in coconut fiber substrate, were pruned to one stem per plant, and received fertigation.  Results: a wide variability was found among the hybrids in terms of total number of fruits per area (68.01 - 127.77fruits/m²), fruit weight (216.39 - 270.06g), commercial yield (135.9 - 227.1ton/ha), total yield (179.9 - 285.5ton/ha) and percentage of total soluble solids (2.87 - 3.21°Brix).  PSX-11 and JMX-223 hybrids produced the highest number of first quality fruits per area (50.04 and 50.43fruits/m2, respectively), the lowest first quality fruit weight (246.99 and 246.12g, respectively), and the highest commercial (208.6 and 227.1ton/ha, respectively) and first quality yield (124.6 and 124.8ton/ha, respectively), and these results were significantly different with respect to those obtained by the other hybrids.  Conclusions:  PSX-11 and JMX-223 were the most productive cucumber hybrids under the conditions in which the trial was carried out.