Requirement for Pollenizer in New Monoecious Hybrid Cucumber ‘NC-Sunshine’

Abstract

Monoecious cucumber (Cucumis sativus) plants generally produce enough pollen for fruit set. The amount of pollen required for fruit set depends on the number of pistillate flowers produced by the cultivar. ‘NC-Sunshine’ is a new monoecious slicing hybrid cucumber with a high percentage of pistillate nodes. Because of the high percentage of pistillate nodes, a pollenizer might be required to maximize pollination to get high total and early yield. Hence, an experiment was conducted at three locations to evaluate the effect of the pollenizer ‘Poinsett 76’ on yield of ‘NC-Sunshine’ compared with no pollenizer ‘Gray Zucchini’ squash (Cucurbita pepo). Differences (P ≥ 0.05) due to pollenizer, location, and the interaction of pollenizer and location on ‘NC-Sunshine’ yield traits were detected. Pollenizer influenced cucumber yield at two of three locations. Results indicated that the pollenizer ‘Poinsett 76’ significantly increased total, marketable, and early yield of ‘NC-Sunshine’. The percentage of early and marketable yield was also higher with the pollenizer ‘Poinsett 76’. In addition, the use of a pollenizer decreased cull yield. Therefore, a pollenizer is needed for monoecious hybrids having a high percentage of pistillate nodes.