ECOLOGICAL VARIETAL EVALUATION OF CUCUMBER (CUCUMIS SATIVUS L.) UNDER FIELD CONDITIONS

Abstract

Strengthening agriculture involves various approaches to developing high-yielding new cultivars, optimization of soil composition, rational use of fertilizers, and pre-sowing treatment of seeds and seedlings. The safest and most environmentally friendly approach is to develop new genotypes, combining the most suitable characteristics in the existing growing area and environmental conditions. In this regard, the completed study aimed to breed various cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cultivars during the years 2020–2021 under the environmental conditions of Aktobe region, Kazakhstan. Cucumber cultivars 584, 577, 427, 294, and 264 gained selection from the nursery based on a complex of economically valuable traits, laying of seed fruits, and individual selection from F2 to F8 populations, using the hybrid cultivar ‘Ular’ as the standard of comparison. Recorded phenological observations on growth stages, morphometrics, types of flowering, disease resistance, production, and biochemical traits of the fruits received analysis. Cucumber samples came from the Kazakh Research Institute of Potato and Vegetable Growing (KazNIIKO), Kazakhstan. The hybrid was a derivative of the L-1 maternal line and the Phoenix 640 paternal line. The research result on the above-recorded parameters characterized six promising domestic cultivars of cucumber, namely, 264, 294, 427, 524, 577, and standard hybrid ‘Ular.’ Based on the complex of economically valuable features, the most predominant C. sativus L. cultivar was 294.