PPI Spring Meeting 2001 - Abstract
Screening the Cucumber Germplasm Collection for Fruit Yield
and Quality
Nischit V. Shetty and Todd C. Wehner
Department of Horticultural Science, North Carolina State
University
Introduction. Fruit yield is an important trait in cucumber.
Plant breeders are interested in developing new cultivars with
concentrated fruit set for the benefit of growers using expensive
hand labor or machine harvest systems. All available cucumber
plant introduction (PI) accessions from the USDA National Plant
Germplasm System collection, along with check cultivars and breeding
lines (hereafter collectively referred to as cultigens), were
evaluated for yield, fruit quality rating, and days to harvest
in small plots harvested once at Clinton, North Carolina.
Methods. Plants of all cultigens were treated with ethephon
to convert them to gynoecious sex expression in order to make
the evaluation more uniform for all cultigens. A total of 817
cultigens (including 7 checks) were tested in the field for early,
total, and marketable yield (number and weight), fruit quality
rating, and days to harvest. The crop was grown using recommended
cultural practices.
Results. The USDA collection also exhibited a wide range
in diversity for marketable fruit number, fruit weight, percentage
of culled fruit at harvest, fruit quality, and days to harvest.
High yielding cultigens identified in the study could be used
to develop high yielding cultivars.
The cultigens with the highest total yield in terms of total
fruit weight among the pickling cucumber cultigens evaluated in
the study were PI 209065, PI 326598, PI 137848, PI 285610, and
PI 264666. Nine slicing cultigens had more total fruit weight
than the standard slicing check 'Sprint 440'. Of the nine, four
cultigens (PI 234517, PI 118279, PI 304085, and PI 512614) had
higher yield in terms of total fruit number. There were 229 middle-eastern
(Beit Alpha) cultigens that had higher yield than the check (WI
2757) used in the study. The cultigens with the highest yield
(fruit weight) were PI 167050, PI 163213, PI 532519, PI 211978,
PI 357864, PI 183231, and PI 211117. Cultigens with the highest
fruit yield based on total fruit weight in the trellis type were
PI 264228, PI 478366, PI 390262, PI 532524, PI 390267, and PI
532520.
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