Agronomic evaluation of three cucumber hybrids under house of culture in Cuba

Abstract

Vegetable production in growing houses requires production levels that contribute to economic efficiency of the production process, so it is necessary the use of cultivars that provide the best agronomic response to the production conditions. In order to evaluate three new cucumber hybrids, research was conducted in greenhouses belonging to The Citric Company “Enrique Troncoso”, Pinar del Río, Cuba. Productive indicators of three new hybrid cucumbers of Spanish origin (‘HS-001’, ‘HS-002’ and ‘HS-011’) were evaluated using a hybrid from Israeli (‘HA-436’) as control, commonly used in productive cycles of cultivation in the entity. Direct seeding was performed using pre-germinated seeds in a 900m² A12 Tropical greenhouse using 50 plants per hybrid and a density of 2,0 plants m^2-1. Productive indicators were assessed in 20 randomly selected plants of each hybrid. The results showed significant differences for variables number of fruit per plant, fruit length, fruit weight and yield, confirming that the production of hybrid HS does not exceed 56,4% of that obtained with the hybrid ‘HA-436’. Although unfavorable results were obtained for the HS hybrids in comparison to ‘HA-436’, the ‘HS-001’ hybrid stood out among HS hybrids, with significant differences in fruit weight and fruit length, and higher productive values.