Influence of Watermelon Mosaic Virus on Slicing Cucumber Farmgate Revenues

Abstract

Watermelon mosaic virus (WMV) is often the most limiting factor to cucumber (Cucumis sativus) production in the midwestern U.S. The influence of WMV on farm-gate revenues for nine slicing cucumber (or fresh market cucumber) cultivars was determined under high WMV disease incidence during 2000 and 2001. Over the two growing seasons, most cucumber cultivars produced excessive amounts of unmarketable WMV symptomatic fruit; however, no WMV symptoms were observed on any fruit produced by `Daytona' or `Indy'. `Thunder' produced some WMV symptomatic fruit but was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) less than that produced by all other cucumber cultivars, except for `Daytona' and `Indy.' Consistent high total farm gate-revenues over both years were produced by `Daytona' and `Indy' compared to other cucumber cultivars evaluated with the exception of `Thunder'. `Daytona,' `Indy,' and `Thunder' tended to produce greater early-season farm-gate revenues. However, late-season revenues of `Thunder' were reduced compared to `Daytona' and `Indy'. `Dasher II,' `General Lee,' `Greensleeves,' `Marketmore 76,' `Speedway,' and `Turbo' produced excessive amounts of unmarketable WMV symptomatic fruit which led to reduced farm-gate revenues. Cucumber cultivars without some level of resistance to WMV produced substantially less cumulative farm-gate revenues than those that had some level of resistance. `Daytona,' `Indy,' and `Thunder' were not the highest yielding cucumber cultivars evaluated in this study, but produced the highest farm-gate revenues due to higher levels of genetic resistance to WMV.