Cucumbers have significant economic value due to their strong nutritional, pharmacological and health benefits. The low production of cucumber in India is associated with the lack of high-yielding hybrids, fluctuating temperatures and low-yielding open-pollinated varieties. Identifying superior cucumber cultivars under various growing conditions is a major goal for off-season cultivation. The current study evaluated ten cucumber cultivars based on 8 yield-related traits during two consecutive years of 2021 and 2022 in open and polyhouse environments for morphological and economic profits. The maximum vine length reported in Japanese Long Green in protected cultivation and early 50% flowering, female flowers/plant, fruits/plant and yield/plant was exhibited in Heera in polyhouse conditions. Higher fruit set, fruit weight, and fruit volume were observed in Japanese Long Green under protected cultivation. Polyhouse-grown crops yielded maximum returns in all varieties compared to open-field cultivation. Heera, Shubhra and Japanese Long Green perform better under protected conditions. The maximum benefit-cost ratio was gained in Heera, followed by Japanese Long Green under protected conditions, when compared to open conditions and benefit-cost ratio, respectively. The study revealed that off-season cultivation of cucumber varieties in polyhouse structure and Heera and Shubhra is a good option for farmers to enhance farmers income and employment opportunities and also these two cultivars are used as vital assets for the crop improvement programme.
Reddy et al. (Fri,) studied this question.