Assessment of Performance of Four Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Cultivars in Iwollo, South-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

A r t i c l e I n f o Field assessment of performance of four cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cultivars namely, Ashely, Marketer, Super-marketer and Pointsett-76 in Iwollo, Southeastern , Nigeria was carried out at the Teaching and Research farm of the Department of Horticultural Technology, Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo. The four cultivars made up the treatments. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. Data on days to 50% emergence, emergence percentage, vine length, number of leaves per plant, number of branches per plant, leaf area index, days to first female flower initiation, number of fruits per plant, weight of a fresh fruit, fresh fruit weight per plant and fresh fruit yield per hectare were collected and analysed using Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The treatment means were separated using least significant difference at 5% probability level. The results showed that there were significant differences (p<0.05) among the cultivars at 45 days after planting in vine length, number of leaves per plant, number of branches per plant and leaf area index with Pointsett-76 having superior values. Pointsett-76 cultivar was also significantly (p<0.05) superior to other cultivars as regard to days to first female flower initiation, number of fruits per plant, weight of a fresh fruit, fresh fruit weight per plant and in fresh fruit yield per hectare. Pointsett-76 cultivar therefore performed better than the other three varieties in the study area and could be recommended to farmers for improved production of cucumber.