Jaymark P.

Telan October 21, 2019

INTRODUCTION
Cucumber is one of the most important crops grown in the greenhouse. Most varieties
are female hybrid cultivars, but in some South-
east European countries monoic cultivars are still in use. As with other rapidly growing
vegetables, cucumber cultivation is characterized by technologies designed to increase
intensive production. Cultural practices are aimed at providing a suitable root medium,
balanced root / leaf growth, balanced source / sink development, and good fruit harvesting rate.
Microclimate regulation, fertilization and preparation are the most important growing
activities. Cucumber is highly sensitive to both abiotic and biotic pressure, and in the case of
inadequate plant management, serious problems can occur (Gruda et al., 2017).
The cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) belongs to one of the most important plant families
of the Cucurbitaceae family. The cucumber belongs to the genus Cucumis, 20 to 25 species of
which are found mainly in Asia and Africa. It is an annual trailing or climbing vine, usually on
the same (monoecious) plant with flowers of both sexes.
It has creeping vine with large leaves, forming a canopy over the cylindrical fruits. It i
s the world's eighth most grown vegetable crop; after maize, sugar beet, cassava, tomatoes, w
atermelons, sweet potatoes and dry onions (Sunday et al., 2018).
It has antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifunal properties and has shown antioxidant, phytochem
ical and hypoglycaemic activity (HinaSaeed, 2018).

Cucumber is a typical subtropical plant and grows best under high temperature, humid
ity, light intensity and availability of nutrients; it is highly sensitive to unfavorable environme
ntal conditions (Gruda et al., 2017).
The cucumber plant is a gross, prostrate annual creeping vine that grows trellises or any
other supporting supports, wrapping long, spiralling tendrils around ribbing. The plant has
large, prickly, hairy triangular leaves that form a canopy over the fruit, and white, often male
or female, flowers.
It is a perennial, deep-rooted plant with tendrils and hairy leaves (about 3feet or 91 cm).
The plants may have an indeterminate or compact habit of the plants. The compact habit of
growth is made up of plants with shorter internode lengths than plants with indeterminate or
defined growth habits. According to a study, the optimum growth of a cucumber occurs
between 70 to 75°F (20 to 25°C) and its growth reduction occurs below 60°F (16°C) and above
90°F (30°C) (Valenzuela et al., 1994).
Gruda et al., 2017 also stated that air temperature influences vegetative growth, flower
initiation, fruit growth and fruit quality. Cucumber growth rate depends on the average 24-hour
temperature: the higher the average temperature (≤ 25 °C), the faster the growth. Optimum air
temperature depends on the growing period. At germination, the optimum temperature is 25–
35 °C and, with good moisture, it takes 2–3 days for seeds to germinate. In contrast, at 12 °C,
seeds need 12–20 days to germinate and there are many losses. Shoot growth does not occur at
air temperatures of < 13–15 °C, while the maximum temperature for vegetative growth is about
38–40 °C.

METHODS
According to FAO the rate of evapotranspiration from a cropped surface can be
measured directly by method of mass transfer or the method of energy balance. It can be
derived from soil and water balance studies based on crops fields or lysimeters.
In this section are provided traditional crop coefficients, calculation procedures to cha
nge crop coefficients and calculate ETc. Two approaches to calculation are outlined: a single
and a dual plant coefficient method. In the single crop coefficient approach, the difference in
evapotranspiration between the cropped and reference grass is combined into one single
coefficient. In the dual crop coefficient approach, the crop coefficient is split into two factors
describing separately the differences in evaporation and transpiration between the crop and
reference surface.

The Penman-Monteith equation can also be used to derive crop evapotranspiration from
meteorological and crop data. The rate of evapotranspiration can be estimated directly by
adjusting the albedo and the aerodynamic and canopy surface resistance to the growing
characteristics of the particular crop. The albedo and resistances are, however, difficult to
estimate accurately as they may vary continually during the growing season as climatic
conditions change, as the crop develops, and with wetness of the soil surface. The canopy
resistance will further be influenced by the soil water availability, and it increases strongly if
the crop is subjected to water stress.
ETc is determined by the crop coefficient approach whereby the effect of the various
weather conditions are incorporated into ETo and the crop characteristics into the Kc
coefficient: ETc Kc ETo
The calculation procedure for crop evapotranspiration, ETc, consists of:
1. Identifying the crop growth stages, determining their lengths, and selecting the
corresponding Kc coefficients;
2. Adjusting the selected Kc coefficients for frequency of wetting or climatic conditions during
the stage;
3. Constructing the crop coefficient curve (allowing one to determine Kc values for any period
during the growing period); and
4. Calculating ETc as the product of ETo and Kc.
Table 1: Lengths of crop development stages* for various planting periods and climatic regions
(days)

Source: FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56

Table 2: Single (time-averaged) crop coefficients, Kc, and mean maximum plant heights for
non-stressed, well-managed crops in sub humid climates (RHmin ≈ 45%, u2 ≈ 2 m/s) for use
with the FAO Penman-Monteith ETo.

Source: FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 1: Development period of the cucumber for the month of June to September.
Figure 2: Development period of cucumber for the month of November to March.
The two figure shows the result of the development period of the Cucumber plant for
the month of June-September and November-March respectively. In the first figure the duration
for the development of cucumber lasts for almost 105 days. It can also observed in the graph
that during the initial development of the crop the average crop coefficient value was about 3.7
and it decreases to 1.7 during the development of the crop. Furthermore, the crop coefficient
approaches almost 4.85 during the mid-development of the cucumber and reaches an average
of 4.4 for the crop coefficient during the late development of the crop. On the other hand, the
initial average crop coefficient for the season of November to March was 2.67 and 1.05 for the
development of the crop. Also, the crop coefficient has a values of 3.02 and 4.19 for mid-
development and late development of the crop respectively.

CONCLUSION
Understanding a certain area’s plant evapotranspiration is a great help to us to know
which crops could be generated. Based on this data, it was observed that the Kc values was
high and according to FAO, crop coefficient was high during rainy season. It can also observed
in this data that during summer or dry season the crop coefficient obtained a lower value and
has a high crop coefficient during rainy season. Also, it is mentioned that cucumber favoured
high temperature for survival or for highest crop production and based on this data the
cucumber will be hard to survive and achieve high crop production.
References
Gruda, N., Balliu, A., & Sallaku, G. (2017). Food Technologies: Cucumber. Good Agricultural Practices
for Greenhouse Vegetable Production in the South East European Countries, 287-299.

HinaSaeed, A. (2018). A REVIEW ON CUCUMBER. International Journal of Technical Research &

Sunday, O., Udensi, U. E., & Nwachukwu, J. C. (2018). Response of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)
and Weeds to Plant Spacing and Weeding Regimes in a Humid Forest Agro-Ecology of
Southeastern Nigeria. International Journal of Plant & Soil Science, 1-13.

Valenzuela, H. R., Hamasaki, R. T., & Fukuda, S. K. (1994). FIELD CUCUMBER PRODUCTION
GUIDELINES FOR HAWAI'I. Honolulu: COLLEGE OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURE AND HUMAN
RESOURCES.