Cucumber and Gherkins Basic

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Introduction

Cucumbers popularly known in India as 'khira' and gherkins are part of the cucurbits variety of crops extensively grown in tropics, subtropics and milder temperate zones of India mainly as a salad crop. It is being grown in the country for almost 4000 years and is eaten raw, pickled or cooked. At present there are about 20 units in the country producing and exporting gherkins in India. In 1998-99, the production of gherkins in India was about 40,000 tonnes. Gherkins, is one of the crops in India which are cultivated exclusively for exports as their consumption within the country is almost nil.The main importers of fresh or chilled gherkins from India are Belgium, Spain and USA; preserved gherkins Belgium, France, Spain and USA; and prepared/preserved gherkins USA, Belgium, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Spain and UK. However, market analysts suggest that India's exports of gherkins have now reached a plateau with no scope for further increase in the export demand.


The market for gherkins is mainly confined to the US and Europe only. In USA, the total market for gherkins is estimated at 5.00 lakh tonnes. Of this 3.80 lakh tonnes is produced within the country and the rest is imported. In Europe Indian gherkins have-some market in Spain and Belgium.

A number of varieties like Poona khira (a small-size pale-green fruit cultivated in western Maharashtra), Balam khira (cultivated in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh); and the Darjeeling and Sikkim varieties (grown in hills of North Bengal) have become very popular. Sheetal, Pusa Sanjog and Priya are some of the varieties developed by Indian researchers.

 
Season

The cultural requirements of all the commercially important crops in the cucurbits group are more or less similar. Cucumber, bottle-gourd, bitter-gourd pumpkin, sponge-gourd and ridge-gourd can be gown in summer as well as in the rainy season, whereas musk-melon, water-melon, squashes and tinda gown better only in summer. The summer crop is sown from January to March and the rainy-season crop in June-July. In the hills, they are sown in April.

 
Cultivation

The following are the two methods of sowing cucumbers.

  1. Ridges are prepared at proper spacing and after adding manure, a number of seeds are sown on each ridge.
  2. In the other method, furrows are made and seeds are sown on the edge either on one or both sides.
The cucurbits are also grown on the river-beds during summer. Special techniques are followed to get an early crop on the sandy banks of the rivers. The spacing from row to row unless staked, varies from 1½ to 3 m, according to the crop. Approximately 2.5 to 3 kg. of seed is required for sowing a hectare of cucumber.
 
Fertilizer and Nutrient Management

Weeds in barley are usually only a problem in the irrigated areas. It is advisable to control the weeds through good cultural practices. Inter-culture should not be practiced unless the soil is very weedy. In the latter case, one hand hoeing is useful. The use of weed-free seed and a thoroughly prepared seedbed are essential for controlling the weeds effectively. Weeds can also be controlled with an application of 2, 4-D sodium or amine salt at the rate of 0.05 kg a.i./ha plus 3% urea in 700-800 litres of water, 30-35 days after the crop.

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Crop

Variety

Spacing(cm)

Active nutrients (kg/ha)

Yield (tonnes /ha)

Region

N

P2O5

K2O

Cucumber

Gen. recommendations (range)

2.5-3 x 0.6-0.75

50-100

24-75

25-50

25.0-30.0

On all-India basis

 
Water Management

Cucurbits, in general, are heavy users of soil moisture. For cucumber, replenishing 120% of evaporation loss through irrigation resulted in maximum yield of quality fruit.

 
Harvest

During warm weather conditions, pickling cucumbers may grow very rapidly and it is important to shorten harvest intervals. Pickling cucumbers can have a 40 % weight increase in 24 hours, especially when fields are well irrigated and may also depreciate in value by 5 to 15 % over the same period.