November 2020 - 6

CUCUMBERS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
and having to move bees around. They
also don't have the risk of poor conditions
for fertilization. On cold days, partially
pollenated cucumbers wind up misshapen
and pointy. Seedless varieties also have
a thicker skin and that works better in
mechanical harvesting.
Briners are attracted to the idea of fewer
internal defects when the pickles are cut.
With seedless varieties, not encountering
seed during cutting makes it easier to
control their shape.
There are a few disadvantages. The tough
skin that growers like sometimes is a
challenge for briners. The brine doesn't soak
through the skin and you have a whole vat
of cucumbers that spoils because they don't
get preserved. There's a balance to achieve in
skin thickness.
Seedless varieties have about 30,000
plants per acre and that's about half of
what you want to plant conventionally.
But with more expensive seed, it takes
about 250 bushels per acre to break even
with seedless varieties. It takes about 200
bushels of pickles per acre to break even
with standard varieties.
The yield potential of seedless varieties
is upwards of 600 bushels per acre in some
plantings in some years with some varieties.
For example, an early June planting of
Gershwin in 2020 may yield between 600
and 650 bushels, but a July planting may not.
Like every crop, each year is different, too.
Standard varieties tend to max out in the
500-bushel range.
VGN: How should growers select their
varieties?
BP: Briners are the main source of
information. Most commercial pickle
growers get a short list of varieties from
their briner. Briners do a lot of research
with data from several states and talk to
seed companies who have access to more
information about their varieties.
From that list, for growers, it then
becomes yield potential, price per thousand
seeds, and days to maturity. Price for
a balance between what the briners need
and what the growers want. In this part of
Michigan, there are many growers and many
briners. That makes this a good location to
do this kind of research.
VGN: Should only varieties with
tolerance to downy mildew be considered?
BP: Downy mildew was managed with
Older varieties have long vines, multiple vines and flowers all along the length of them, left.
Plant breeders have been breeding to shorten the vines and have more fruit close to the
crown, center. Seedless pickle varieties mostly have one vine, set their fruit near the crown
of the plant, and it's easy to tell when it's time to pick, right.
seedless varieties averages about $12
per thousand seeds, versus about $5 per
thousand for a standard-seeded variety.
Most pickles can be harvested in 40 to
50 days. Growers want varieties that can
be planted - and then be harvested - at
different times.
Seedless varieties tend to be slower in
gaining size so you don't have to scramble
around after a rain event trying to harvest
cucumbers before they get too big. Seeded
varieties will get really fat very quickly after
a rain event.
Some growers plant both standard and
seedless varieties to manage risk. You
still have issues with needing bees for the
standard varieties, and then there's the issue
of spreading them out - isolating fields of
different types - so you don't get pollination
in seedless varieties.
I'd say growers should work with the
briner's short list but also talk to seed
companies, and review our trial data. Some
seed companies may have more data for
your area than what we have, and can share
information on pre-commercial varieties
at their discretion. We're not allowed to
share all data of all varieties due to trial
agreements protecting the privacy of their
pre-commercial material.
There are four main seed companies for
cucumbers. Rijk Zwaan is the title holder
for seedless varieties and has the most
varieties available for mechanical harvest.
Nunhems has been in seedless cucumbers
for a while, too, and has a few varieties in the
pipeline. Bejo is a relative newcomer to this
market. Bejo has had hand-picked varieties
in Europe and the U.S. and has moved into
pickle varieties for mechanical harvest.
Seminis pretty much has the lion's share of
the standard pickling varieties but is getting
close to releasing some seedless ones.
VGN: Yield trials are important when
evaluating cucumber varieties grown for
pickling. Why are brining comparisons
also important?
BP: The types of things growers like
aren't always what briners and customers
like, and everyone's view needs considered.
Growers like yield; that's more dollars.
Briners like something that has a very
consistent size and shape, and that doesn't
bloat in the brining tank. A bloater is a
pickle that traps gas internally during the
brining process and its insides all turn to
mush. That's why you also have to evaluate
varieties in the vat tank - to identify those
prone to bloating. The thicker skin growers
like can equate to skin toughness for the
briner and inadequate pickling. That leads
to large losses at the briner. Varieties must be
evaluated on whether their thicker skin leads
to inadequate pickling.
Length and diameter are also important
to briners. In our trials, we measure the
fruit end to end and side to side, and divide
length by diameter to get the L/D ratio. Most
briners are looking for measurements of
3 to 3.2. That makes for a good spear that
fits into a jar. If you get to 3.2, you get more
slices to cut for sliced pickles.
Some varieties just don't put the length
on in certain conditions - like during hot
spells - and that's something briners look at
when making their short list for growers.
The selection process starts with the
briner. Find what brines well, then of
those, what have good yield and desirable
maturation times? Selection needs to strike
varietal resistance until 2012 and then
the pathogen overcame the resistance. It's
taken close to a decade for new, tolerant
varieties to come out. Downy mildewtolerant
varieties help but downy mildew
can overcome them. Growers have to
spray anyway, so many are sticking with
the older varieties they're familiar with -
knowing they'll have to spray You have
to learn the varieties you use - learn how
they grow and size up across a couple
plantings and seasons. Most growers are
sticking with the varieties they know.
VGN: Isn't scouting and predicting
downy mildew outbreaks getting better?
BP: We can put up traps for the spores
and know when it's around. Growers will
tell the right people when they've found
it, who can spread the word for the good
of the whole. That makes it easier to know
when an outbreak has blown in. We watch
for it and when we find it, we sound the
alarm. That system has been worked out
pretty well.
VGN: How do you ensure you're
selecting a variety that's the best match for
your market?
BP: If you're a grower, your market is
the briner. You're working for them. You
look at their short list and then have to
decide what works best on your farm and
in your situation. Briners will be after
brining characteristics. If you're a grower,
you're looking at yield, price and days
of maturity. You already know you'll be
planting a variety that brines well and
then it becomes what grows well for you.
VGN note: Phillips' yield data from
MSU's seedless cucumber variety trials
can be found on the Midwest Vegetable
Variety Reports website. The site is
maintained by Purdue University and
the 2019 data can be found at: https://
ag.purdue.edu/hla/fruitveg/Pages/
MVVTRB.aspx VGN
6 | VegetableGrowersNews.com

http://https:// http://ag.purdue.edu/hla/fruitveg/Pages/ http://www.VegetableGrowersNews.com

November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2020