Effects of Different Rootstocks on Greenhouse Cucumber Production

This study was conducted to determine the effects of some commercial rootstocks on plant growth, yield, fruit quality and water consumption of cucumber plants grown in greenhouse conditions during spring and autumn seasons of 2009 and 2010. In both experiments cucumber cultivar Gordion was grafted on five rootstocks, namely RS841 (Cucurbita maxima x Cucurbita moschata), Nunhems 9075 (C. maxima x C. moschata), Maximus (AG 1355) (C. maxima x C. moschata), Macis (Lageneria siceraria) and Argentario (Lageneria siceraria). Self-grafted plants were tested as the control. Plants were grown in perlite with a plant density of 3.48 plant/m(2). The experimental design was randomized parcels with 3 replicates. The highest yield was obtained from the plants grafted on Nunhems 9075 in spring and Maximus in autumn which were 23.5 and 26.5% higher than the yield of self-grafted treatment respectively. Grafting on C. maxima x C. moschata hybrids increased plant biomass, yield parameters and water use efficiency in both growing cycles. Plant height, total plant dry weight and water use efficiency were found highly correlated with marketable yield in spring. Among the fruit quality parameters, in spring fruit firmness, dry weight, total soluble solids (TSS) and pH of fruit juice were found the lowest in self grafted treatment; however in autumn only fruit firmness and TSS were the lowest in that treatment. It was concluded that the performance of rootstock depends on the genotype of rootstock. C. maxima x C. moschata hybrids (Nunhems 9075, RS841 and Maximus) could be used for Cucumber sativus 'Gordion' with higher performance while Lageneria siceraria hybrids (Argentario and Macis) were not found as appropriate rootstocks for cucumber.