Cucumber varieties and its hybrids are distinguished not only in size and shape. Now both professionals and amateurs have a huge choice, which is calculated not by tens, but by hundreds of species. What should be guided when choosing a variety? First, from this variety of varieties, you should choose the ones that are most suitable for your region of residence and climate. If you pick the variety correctly, then the cucumber will be most resistant to plant diseases, common in your region, and to weather conditions. Separate salad varieties from varieties for canning. Know also that early varieties yield crops quickly, late ones are resistant to diseases and long fruiting. The importance is also how the cucumber is pollinated - by insects or by self-pollination.
How to choose the right kind of ogrica? In general, varieties of cucumbers can be divided into canned, salad and universal. When choosing a variety, you must determine the purpose for which you grow cucumbers, and choose a variety, based on your goal.
Some examples of popular canned varieties and hybrids: Avant-garde, Asterix, Brigantine, True friends, Aquarius, Vyaznikovsky 37, Salting, Competitor, Mig, Reliable, Spring, Favorit.
A few examples of popular salad varieties and hybrids: Adam, Vladivostok 155, Parade, Rusty local, Synthesis.
Some examples of popular universal varieties and hybrids: Stork, Blagodatny, Golubchik, Druzhina, Unity, Kit, Levin, Marinda, Pasamonte, Seversky, Nightingale, Ussuriyskiy 3, Photon, Epilogue.
By the time of ripening and by appointment, cucumbers can be divided into groups:
1. Early ripening - varieties that are grown on the open ground and quickly sung - from shoots to the first fruits takes up to 45 days. In most cases it is salad cucumber.
2. Mid-ripening - up to the first fruit-greens takes up to 50 days. These are cucumbers of universal and canned varieties.
3. Late-ripening - more than 50 days. These are also cucumbers of universal and canned varieties.
The most shade-tolerant are early-ripened cucumbers. They are best sown from the middle of December in the room, illuminated with a lamp. And without lighting - from the middle of February. The most delicious of early ripening cucumbers F1 hybrids: Taiga, Marathon, Manuel.
Different varieties and hybrids of any of the groups differ also in their "shirt" and appearance depending on where this variety comes from. For example, in Central Asia, smooth cucumbers are popular, their length is 15-20 cm, the color is dark green. In China and Japan, long cucumbers 60-80 cm in size, which are covered with deep furrows and tubercles, are very popular. And in Western Europe, they prefer small cucumbers 7-10 cm long with small frequent spines and tubercles. Also popular are small cucumbers with a "Dutch shirt", on which there are rare middle tubercles with spines. In Eastern Europe and Russia, cucumbers with "Russian shirt" are very famous - lighter fruits of medium length with occasional hillocks and light green or white stripes at the end (Ustyug, Gypsy, Murashka, Valdai, Slobodskaya). These cucumbers are very good salting, because Due to the rare tubercles the brine enters the fruit more evenly.
Fetal sparing is also an important criterion for selection. Distinguish thorns brown, black, white.
Fruits with white thorns - salad type and they are not suitable for pickling. From greenhouse farms to us on the shelves are coming most often just such cucumbers, regardless of the season. Rare white spines can be seen even on long smooth cucumbers.
Brown and black spikes indicate the fruits of a universal type. Basically, these are varieties and hybrids intended for greenhouses and open ground. Such cucumbers are good to eat fresh, pickle and salted. Their only drawback is that they overreview much faster, become coarse and turn yellow than cucumbers with white thorns.
Another criterion when choosing a variety of cucumbers is a bundle of ovaries. When the cucumbers ripen in the bunches, they do not outgrow. Such fruits are good for marinating and pickling (Arina, Faithful Friends, Captain, Moscow Nights, etc.).
Today F1 hybrids are becoming more and more popular. They are obtained by crossing two lines. Many of these hybrids are high-yielding and early plants, the overwhelming majority of their flowers are either self-pollinated or female (i.e., without grafts). Hybrids give a better harvest. Even when the fruits of this hybrid overripe, they are devoid of a bitter taste. Next, some hybrids of the F1 series are shown, which have proved themselves well when grown not only by professionals on farms, but also on private plots, cottages and kitchen gardens:
True friends (universal type), Okhotny Ryad (universal type), Bobrik (salad type), Uglich (salad type), Ustug (universal type), Shchedrik (salad type), Murashka (universal type), Titus (universal type), Julian (salad type), Vladko (universal type), Anulka (salad type), Andrus (universal type), Sander (salad type).
If you choose a parthenocarpic variety of cucumbers (with a female type of flowering), plant a pollinator to it, otherwise the flowering will be plentiful, but there will be few fruits. In addition, parthenocarpy varieties are most often grown in film shelters and greenhouses. If they are pollinated by bees, the fruits can be twisted. So do not grow such varieties in the open field, unless indicated that they are suitable for this.
And remember that cucumbers are thermophilic, and they can be planted in the open ground only when there is no threat of frost.