EFFECT OF FOUR DIFFERENT SUBSTRATES ON GROWTH, YIELD AND SOME FRUIT QUALITY PARAMETERS OF CUCUMBER IN BAG CULTURE

Greenhouse production of cucumber is gradually increasing in Iran as a response to increased consumer demand for fresh and high quality cucumbers. In Iranian greenhouse horticulture only perlite is the most popular material used as growing media. In order to evaluate the effect of some other substrates on growth, yield and quality of greenhouse cucumber cv. ‘Rubah-R’, a greenhouse experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Faculty of Guilan University in Rasht, Iran (37°16'N), during autumn 2003. Four growing media were used including peat, perlite, rice-hull and a mixed substrate (perlite and rice-hull 50:50 v/v). Results showed that substrates had a significant effect on the plant growth, total fruit yield, marketable fruits, fruit weight and number of fruits per m². Furthermore, no significant differences were found between substrates in term of fruit quality parameters such as fruit length, fruit diameter and total soluble solids.