Diseases and Management of Crops under Protected Cultivation

(Diseases and Management of Crops under Protected Cultivation)
parthenocarpic cucumber can be grown over duration of 10-11 months under naturally ventilated
green house conditions with high productivity and very high quality fruits.
The concept of polyhouse vegetable breeding programme was developed at Pantnagar
during 2002 in cucumber. Some of the good genotypes were isolated and pure line and hybrid
breeding programme were adopted for improvement of these genotypes. After three years of
multilocational testing at Tarai, Mid hills and higher hills under polyhouse condition, two genotypes
were identified for release, which are in Parthenocarpic Cucumber. These identified genotypes
were released by Uttarakhand State Variety Release Committee during May 2011.
The distinguishable traits are as below:
A) Pant Parthenocarpic Cucumber -2
1. The first harvesting starts after 30 days of sowing.
2. Plant bears only female flowers (gynoecious), 551 in number per plant
3. The single fruit weight is 630 gm.
4. The average yield is 1755 q/ha.
B) Pant Parthenocarpic Cucumber -3
1. The first harvesting starts after 32 days of sowing.
2. Plant bears only female flowers (gynoecious), 465 in number per plant.
3. The single fruit weight is 415 gm.
4. The average yield is 1605 q/ha.
5. Plant produces seedless fruits (Parthenocarpic in nature)
Production technique in greenhouse cucumber
Cucumber is warm season crop and requires high temperature of 20-30 0 C and plenty of
sun light to produce good crop. The optimum soil temperature for cucumber production should be
15-18 0 C because lower temperature delays plant growth and development of fruit especially in
greenhouse cucumber. Prolonged temperature above 35 0 C should also be avoided as fruit quality
and production gets minimized.
Greenhouse cucumber is established in greenhouse as transplants. The cost of seed is
high while germination percentage is near to 100%, so one seed/hill or bag is sufficient. The seeds
of cucumber germinate rapidly within 3-4 days when the optimum temperature is available in
greenhouse. During seedling or transplanting, the plant should never be stressed for nutrient and
water. Plants are ready for transplanting at 3-4 true leaf stage. Greenhouse cucumber plants have
very large leaves, grow vigorously and require large amount of sun light. In good sun light
conditions or in warm weather 150-200 cm square space should be provided to plants in
greenhouses but where light conditions are poor, more spacing is required for good growth of the
plants. Exact spacing between row to row and plant to plant depends upon variety, soil fertility,
light requirement, training and production system of crop.
Training and pruning is also needed for greenhouse cucumber. The basic principle of
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