So, what should you pay attention to when choosing a variety?
Step 1 Location: where will we grow them?
There may be 2 options here:
1. In greenhouses. In this case, it is necessary to choose parthenocarpic varieties and hybrids – their fruits are tied without pollination. This is important because there are no bees in the greenhouse.
2. In the open field. Here you can grow both bee-pollinated cucumbers and parthenocarpic ones. But it is better to plant both, because both have their own problems. Bee pollinated varieties and hybrids can leave you without a crop in cloudy and rainy weather – bees do not fly. Bad weather is not a hindrance to parthenocarpics – cucumbers are formed in any case. But they also have issues to consider.
Step 2. Ripening terms and early maturity?
There are two fundamentally different concepts – early maturity and precocity.
- Early ripeness is the period from germination to fruiting, and the shorter it is, the earlier you can pick cucumbers.
- Early ripening – how many kilograms of cucumbers were obtained over a certain period of time (for example, in the first 10 days, in the first month).
All varieties and hybrids of cucumbers are divided into three groups according to early ripeness:
1. Early ripe – the period from germination to fruiting up to 45 days.
Hybrids:Β Aroma of summer, Athos, Ladies’ man, Kapitoshka, Claudia Agro, Prince of Denmark.
Athos and the Ladies’ Man
Kapitoshka and the Prince of Denmark
2. Mid-season β 45β50 days
Hybrids:Β Aromagia, Cowboy, Porthos.
Aromagic
3. Late ripening – more than 50 days.
Hybrids:Β Guidon, Relentless, Faust, Khrustlandiya.
crystalland
At the same time, varieties and hybrids can be very early, but have low early maturity, and vice versa.
Step 3. Appointment of cucumbers: how will we use them?
All varieties of cucumbers can be divided into 4 groups:
1. Salad. Intended for fresh consumption. Due to the very juicy, sweet, fragrant and crispy pulp, they are simply indispensable in salads and slicing. Usually the fruits of lettuce varieties and hybrids are smooth, but there are also tuberculate ones.
Smooth greens of hybrids Crispy Slice, Faust, Fan, Practice, Forward, Aromagia categorically not suitable for salting and are used exclusively fresh, they can be used to prepare juices.
Tuberculate greens of hybrids Shanghai fellow, Beijing gourmet, Khrustlyandiya, Arbat, Lakomka, Salad hero, Twins, Flagship you can pickle and prepare winter salads.
2. Pickling. There are many indicators for the successful pickling of cucumbers. We are talking about classical salting without the use of acids, according to old Russian traditions in a barrel or now in jars.
There is an opinion that only black-thorned and bee-pollinated varieties and hybrids are suitable for salting, but at present, breeders have created parthenocaric and white-thorned hybrids, which, in terms of their taste in salty form, are in no way inferior, and even superior in yield, the fruits of such hybrids are never bitter and do not turn yellow. Cucumbers should have a high amount of solids, but few people can measure it in everyday life.
Suitable cucumber fruits for pickling or not can be determined by indirect signs. The surface of the cucumbers should be tuberculate and the more tubercles, the better. The skin should be thin but firm. The pulp is crispy and elastic. A mandatory requirement is a small seed chamber on the cross section, which means there will be no voids. Usually, when fresh, such cucumbers seem a bit dry.
Agroholding “Poisk” has a whole arsenal of pickling hybrids: Athos, Ladies’ man, Enezh 21, Kapitoshka, Pervachok, Prince of Denmark, Stilyaga, Suzdalets, Shustrets-well done, Children’s world, Cupid, Onyx.
Black-thorn cucumber lovers are offered hybrids:Β Chernomor, Rodnichok, Bagration, Gazelle, Brother Ivanushka, Darling, Diner, Zubrenok, Abundant.
3. For pickling. Β For pickling, I usually use slightly undergrown greens (picks and gherkins). When collecting very small cucumbers, the yield of cucumber plants is lost, so we recommend growing hybrids with a bouquet arrangement of ovaries in a node.
Hybrids Aramis, Aroma of summer, Cheerful family, Taste of childhood, country ambassador, Carolina, Christina, Cowboy, Peasant woman, Hostess’s favorite, Innovator, Porthos, Revenge, Record, Fast and Furious, Fountain will delight you with high yields and crispy pickled cucumbers.
4. Universal. Many hybrids intended for salting pickling are very tasty juicy and sweet and fresh, so they have a universal purpose.
Hybrids Athos, Avoska, Emerald placer, Bouquet for mom, Dragoon, Claudia Agro, Malachite box, Marina, Multifruit, Skorokhod, Pharaoh.
How to find out which group a given cucumber belongs to? This information is always indicated on the package of seeds in the description of the variety. Or it can be found on the website of the State Register of Breeding Achievements Approved for Use in the Russian Federation.
