Growth and yield of five varieties of cucumber (<i>Cucumis sativus</i> l.) in southern Nigeria

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth and yield of five varieties of cucumber. There were significant differences among the varieties with regard to days to emergence, days to 50% flowering, length of vine, number of leaves, number of branches, weight of fruit, length of fruit and the diameter of fruit per plant. Centriolo marketer produced the longest vine length, number of leaves and number of branches. These were comparable to the values for marketmoore while the least values were produced by local variety. Marketmoore variety out-yielded other varieties with a value of 1056 g/per plant. The other varieties, Centriolo marketer, Pionsett, Beit alpha and Local variety produced 858 g, 722 g, 652 g, and 388 g per plant respectively. It was also superior in yield per unit area with a value of 35 t/ha and this more than doubled the value of the local variety which had 12.9 t/ha. ThE study revealed that Marketmoore and Centriolo varieties are promising varieties of cucumber which can be recommended for production in this ecological zone.

Key words: climate change, deforestation, national parks, global warming, ozone layer, biodiversity