Background. Currently, the most widespread and harmful disease of cucumber is downy mildew. In this regard, a vitally important trend in cucumber breeding is the development of new cultivars, more resistant to downy mildew, for cultivation in different regions. Solution to this problem requires searching for donors of resistance for use in breeding practice.Materials and methods. The studies were conducted at Volgograd Experiment Station of VIR using conventional methods. The material for the screening was the collection of cucumber genetic resources held by VIR.Results and conclusions. During 32 years of work, 2873 cucumber accessions from VIR’s holdings were screened. As a result, 57 accessions with resistance or relative resistance to downy mildew were identified, i. e. 2.0% of the total number studied. Immune accessions were not found. Among the selected accessions, those with the highest yield are noteworthy: landraces from Azerbaijan (temp. k-3999 and temp. k-4004) as well as the cultivars from China ‘Zungsungerum-oi’ (temp. k-3701), ‘Tianin mini cucumber’ (k-4490), ‘Tian Uzin Yao No. 5’ (temp. k-3840) and ‘Tian Uzin Yang No. 6’ (temp. k-3841). Of the resistant and relatively resistant accessions, 76% were from Southeast Asia. During the years of study, 23 accessions, previously resistant to downy mildew, lost their resistance and suffered severe damage from the disease. Hence, it seems obvious that resistant accessions should be periodically retested for susceptibility to downy mildew. Twenty accessions were selected to form a group of tolerant ones. Of these, ‘Yeo leam sam chuk oi’ (k-4545), ‘Crispy Top F1’ (temp. k-3549) and ‘Pchelka F1’ (temp. k-3981) had the highest average yield.
Background. One of the global problems presently faced by humanity is obesity and overweight. For treatment and prevention of this disease, doctors recommend consuming more vegetables, cucumbers in particular. Despite the fact that Russia is one of the major cucumber producers, its average yield is more than twice lower than in the EU countries. To meet the demand of the population, it is necessary to additionally import the missing products. In this regard, the urgent need for an increase of cucumber production is obvious, and first of all, by raising the yield.Materials and methods. The research was conducted at the experimental sites of Volgograd Experiment Station of VIR. Accessions from VIR’s cucumber collection served as the material for the study. Methods developed and accepted by VIR were used in the research.Results and conclusions. Such agronomic characteristics as yield, fruit weight and length, thorn color, dry matter and sugar content were studied. A noticeable direct correlation was found between fruit length and fruit weight, and moderate direct correlations were observed between yield and fruit length, yield and fruit weight, dry matter and sugars. The indicators showing suitability of accessions for salting and canning were analyzed. Accessions that can be used in breeding practice are recommended. A conclusion is made about the prospects of breeding for valuable agronomic traits using long-fruited forms of cucumber from the countries of South-East Asia and the Russian Far East.
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