The most popular varieties of cucumbers for open ground
If climatic conditions permit, then cucumbers should be grown in the open field: here the vegetables receive enough light, freely pollinate, and are less susceptible to fungal diseases. Breeders offer many varieties and hybrids, especially for sky planting. Such plants are resistant to fluctuations in climatic conditions and various diseases, the fruits are used for salads, conservation, for sale or universal.
Hybrid or not hybrid
In horticulture, it is customary to distinguish between the concepts of a variety - these crops from year to year transmit their properties through seeds - and a hybrid, which is a mixture of varieties and does not transmit its characteristics through seeds.
The benefits of varieties include:
- more pleasant taste than hybrids;
- undemanding care. They, unlike hybrid plants, easily adapt to changes in the environment and climate, and the missed feeding or watering does not affect the yield;
- a healthier composition.
Varietal cucumbers also have disadvantages:
- insect pollination, so that yields are reduced if bees do not fly during flowering, for example, due to rains;
- with the same degree of comfort, varieties still produce fewer fruits than hybrids.
When growing cucumbers for yourself, the advantages of varietal vegetables outweigh the disadvantages. To obtain a harvest on an industrial scale, high-yielding plants are needed, and therefore farmers prefer hybrids.
The best varieties for open ground in terms of ripening with a description
With the varieties correctly selected in terms of ripening, there are tasty and healthy cucumbers on the table all season.
Early ripe
Elegant... The variety is universal, bred back in the 60s of the last century and has not yet been lost among vegetable novelties. Due to the increased cold resistance, it is grown practically throughout the entire territory of Russia, it is chosen, among other things, for open ground in the middle zone, the Far East, and in the north with a short warm season.
The culture is bee-pollinated, the first fruits ripen 38-40 days after germination. Cucumbers are characterized by an elongated elliptical shape, a thin rind, richly colored green and covered with white stripes. The surface of the fruit is not smooth - there are small tubercles on it. Zelentsy grow up to 14 cm in length, their average weight is 120-150 g.
The vegetable is juicy, without bitterness, with crispy flesh. Tasty fresh, suitable for canning and pickling. Productivity - up to 7 kg / m².
Delicacy. The shape of the cucumbers is cylindrical; on the dark green peel there are small tubercles of a darker color. The vegetable has a dense pulp, covered with delicate skin. Thanks to the sugar it contains, it tastes sweet. It grows in length up to 12 cm.
The yield of the variety is up to 7 kg / m². It belongs to the universal: both salad dressings and for processing into winter preparations.
The culture shows high resistance to short-term cold snaps, which allows it to be grown practically throughout Russia.
Herman F1. The hybrid is characterized by long-term fruiting and high yield (up to 9 kg per bush). On the territory of Russia it has been grown since 2000. Zelentsy gherkin-like: small, with a length of about 10 cm and a diameter of about 3 cm, weighing up to 100 g, taste sweet, regardless of ripening conditions. The plant is grown with vertical and horizontal bush formation. The fruits are used in salads, pickled and canned.
The disadvantages of the variety include the high cost of seeds.
On a note
In the names of hybrid cucumbers, the prefix F1 is added to the name - a marker of an artificially obtained variety.
Salting. On a hybrid plant with a medium early maturity, fruits with excellent taste ripen. Cucumbers grow juicy, dense and crispy, not bitter. The plant feels good in a shaded area of the site, it is resistant to typical cucumber infections.
Zelentsy have a neat cylindrical shape, grow up to 14 cm in length, up to 4 cm in diameter.Their weight fluctuates around 120 g.
Subject to agrotechnical standards, the yield per square meter of pickling hybrid is 5-6 kg. The fruits grow homogeneous, one to one, and are ideal for processing (the name of the variety speaks about this), however, they are also used fresh.
Advice! In open ground, cucumbers can be planted with seeds and seedlings. The second method allows for closer maturation and grow more viable plants.
Mid-season
The first harvest of mid-season cucumbers is removed from the bush 45-48 days after the start of the growing season. The most popular mid-season soil varieties are described below.
Friendly family F1. Up to 10 kg of the crop is harvested from a square meter of the hybrid. These cucumbers are small, like gherkins (each of the zelents grows up to 11 cm in length and weighs about 90 g), grow in bunches of 2-8 pieces.
The plant is distinguished by high immunity to cucumber diseases, undemanding to growing conditions, good balanced taste and pleasant cucumber aroma, high yield (up to 10 kg / m²). It has long-term fruiting, up to the very frost.
The hybrid is rightfully considered one of the best self-pollinated varieties for pickling for the winter.
Advice! Alternative varieties can be grown for canning: Aquarius, Far East, Cascade, Competitor, Russian taste, Universal.
Erofei. The variety is characterized by resistance to cucumber infections: angular spot, downy mildew. The plant gives a consistently high yield. Feels good in the open area and in the greenhouse. Zelentsy grow small, up to 6-7 cm in length, have a slightly elongated ovoid shape. Basically, the fruits are grown for processing: canning, salting.
Drinking. The variety is recommended for growing outdoors under a film cover. Its fruits grow up to 12 cm in length, weigh 80-90 g. Productivity, subject to agrotechnical standards, reaches 8 kg. Cucumbers have excellent taste and are ideal for processing.
Maryina Roshcha F1. This hybrid has grown rapidly in popularity over the past few years. It is high-yielding (12 kg per 1 sq. M.), Resistant to cucumber infections and climatic manifestations, its fruits with high palatability for universal use.
Among the mid-ripening varieties, the Competitor is popular, resistant to temperature extremes and many cucumber infections, variety Nezhinsky, universal hybrid Libella, New Phoenix.
Late ripening
A distinctive feature of late-ripening varieties is a well-developed root system - unlike early ripening varieties, its formation takes up to 50 days. Hence the advantage of late-ripening cucumbers - long-term fruiting, before the onset of frost. Another advantage is that there is no need to install trellises (branches can weave on the ground). Finally, the fruit tastes good without bitterness.
Advice! When choosing seeds of late-ripening cucumbers for open ground, you should pay attention to varieties with strong weaving - they give the best yields.
Phoenix. The variety is universal, was registered in the State Register in 1993 and is recommended for cultivation in the open ground of the Central Black Earth Region, North Caucasus, Nizhnevolzhsky. Resistant to downy mildew, peronosporia, cucumber mosaic. It is very popular in Ukraine and Crimea.
Begins to bear fruit on the 55-65 day of vegetation and continues to bear fruit until frost.Zelentsy grow up to 16 cm in length and weighing 160-180 g. The yield varies within 5-7 kg / m². The fruits are well stored, at room temperature they retain their properties for 15-20 days.
The Phoenix bush is powerful and tall (lashes up to 3 m), with strong branching. The variety is not picky about care and tolerates heat, temperature drops. But with insufficient watering and overripe, the pulp of the fruit acquires bitterness, the skin coarsens. The disadvantages also include bee pollination.
Brownie. The hybrid gives the first harvest 2 months after germination and bears fruit until late autumn. Zelentsy are removed with a length of 7-9 cm and weighing 80-90 g. Cucumbers are distinguished by excellent taste properties, are used for pickling and pickling. Productivity - 6-7 kg per 1 m².
Chinese climbing. The first fruits ripen on the 55-70 day of the growing season. The variety is distinguished by a bountiful harvest from the beginning of fruiting until late autumn. It is grown in seedlings, moved to the garden bed, when 3-5 leaves appear on the seedlings. The fruits have excellent taste, dense pulp without bitterness, in which voids are not formed. Cucumbers grow up to 12 cm in length and weighing 80-109 g. They are used for salads and pickles, they tolerate transportation well. A powerful bush requires a garter.
The list of the best late-ripening varieties includes the universal Chinese miracle, a high-yielding universal hybrid Khrust, recommended for growing in the south of the country salad hybrid Relay.
Selection of the best cucumbers according to other criteria
There are salad cucumbers, for pickling, canning, universal (they are also suitable for making salads, and any preparations).
- The best early salad varieties are the versatile Graceful, Movir 1 and Saltan, the Agate salad hybrid. The popular mid-season ones include Aelita, Biryusa.
- The best for salting are considered to be a hybrid variety Siberian salting F1, undemanding in care Nezhinsky 12, resistant to diseases Parisian gherkin, early maturing Pickling, Crunchy with homogeneous small greens.
- For pickling, the best varieties are Adam, Voyage, Lyubimchik, Moscow dude, Solnechny.
- Hybrid Zakuson F1, Droplet with fruits of good keeping quality, Ira F1 are ranked among the popular universal ones.
- The most productive varieties of cucumbers for open ground were hybrids Dachnik (10 kg / m2), Dasha (up to 11 kg / m2), Strong (10 kg / m2), Dvoryansky, aka Buratino (up to 15 kg / m2), Vivat (14 kg / m2), Zozulya (12 kg / m2).
With the variety of varieties, vegetable growers and farmers have great opportunities for growing crops. Focusing on their needs, they can plant early and mid-season, late varieties, grow cucumbers for salads, blanks and 2-in-1 - universal. In order for everyone to find their own taste, breeders create a variety of varietal and hybrid novelties.
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