Effect of different leaf area management on growth and yield of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cultivated in hydroponic system

The effect of photosynthetic assimilates on fruit development and the number of fruit sets has not been studied for Japanese cultivars.
To bridge this gap, this study aimed to investigate and compare the effect of different leaf area index (LAI) management regimes on the growth and yield of three cucumber cultivars (‘Khassib’, ‘Proloog’, ‘Eteruno’) in terms of yield components.
Treatments with high or low LAI management regimes were established, and the plants were cultivated in a hydroponic system for approximately three months.
The average LAI of the three cultivars under high and low LAI managements were 2.7 and 1.7, respectively.
For all cultivars, the total amount of light received (MJ m^‑2) was approximately 10% lower under low LAI management regime than under high LAI management regime.
Contrastingly, the fruit fresh weight in the low LAI management regime showed a 47% reduction in ‘Khassib’, 49% reduction in ‘Proloog’, and 25% reduction in ‘Eteruno’ compared to that in the high LAI management regime.
This could be attributed to the high fruit abortion in and reduced fruit number of ‘Khassib’ and ‘Proloog’, having high female flower rates.
Light-use efficiency, calculated from the total amount of light reception and total dry matter, was not significantly different between low and high LAI management regimes.
These results indicated that excessive defoliation significantly reduced the yield in cultivars with a high female flower rate.

IV Asian Horticultural Congress – AHC2023

K. Maeda, K. Nomura, D.H. Ahn

fruit abortion, dry matter partitioning, photoassimilates, hydroponics, greenhouse cultivation

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1404.177