Description
Cucumber is a fruit from a plant belonging to cucurbitaceae family. It has a thin body, hairy leaves, cylindrical fruits and within these fruits great number of seed. It can be cultivated in every climate but cultivating area has to be a wetland. The plant that blooms a yellow flower little while after planted can bear fruit in a short time. Its origin is North India.
Cucumber cultivation in Turkey goes back a lot. It can be cultivated in every region. %44 of cucumber production in Turkey is done in Mediterranean Region. After Mediterranean Region, Aegean Region is responsible for %11 while Marmara Region for %9. %5 of total vegetable production is cucumber.
In an area of 52.679.727 hectares is used for cultivation of vegetables in the World. Of this, 1.905.648 hectares is used for cultivating cucumber. Cucumber is ranked sixth in terms of production after Tomato, Onion, Watermelon, Cabbage and Pea.
100.739 tonne of cucumber is cultivated in an area of 60.000 hectares in Turkey. Turkey is ranked third in cucumber cultivation after China and Iran. 21.356 decares out of total area is used for cultivating pickled cucumbers.
Cucumbers that are cultivated in Turkey are exported to 88 different countries out of which %75 is European Union. Turkey is number one in terms of production and export of gherkin which is a cucumber for pickle. %90 of the yearly cultivation of 80000 tonne gherkin is exported.
Cucumber is very sensitive towards cold weather. It is immediately affected when temperature drops below zero degree. In high temperatures it cannot grow due to fungus diseases and loss of water. If temperature is higher than 30 degrees it can cause paleness and if it is higher than 40 degrees it causes plant to develop physical diseases. It is also important that moisture rate should be %70-80 at greenhouse cultivation.
It branches into two as pickled cucumber and table cucumber. Best known types:
Greenhouse Cultivated
Table Types; Green Spott, Bittex, Melior, Standex, Orion, Spot Sesitent, Super Beith Alpha, Shalini, Kalunga, Jawell
Pickled Cucumber Types, Nimbus, Hokus, Argus
Field Cultivated
Table Types; Colorado, Marketer, Cubit, Submarine, Langa, Stays Green, Maltepe, Dere, Cengelkoy and Kilis
Pickled Cucumber Types; Belair, Gherkin, Belmonte, Rus and Kornison