NCSU Cucumber Breeding Report - 2001
Todd C. Wehner
Professor
Tammy L. Ellington
Agric. Res. Tech. III
Department of Horticultural Science
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7609
Pickling Cucumbers
Brinestock Evaluation - 2001
Spring (Stage 3) Pickle Trial
Todd C. Wehner and Tammy L. Ellingtonz
Department of Horticultural Science
North Carolina State University
Introduction
Cucumbers from harvests 2, 4, and 6 of the stage 3 spring pickling cucumber
trial were each placed in one brine tank at Mt. Olive Pickle Co. The tanks
were purged with nitrogen to remove excess carbon dioxide from the brine.
Methods
The cultigens (cultivars and breeding lines) were evaluated for fruit quality
(shape, external color, texture, seedcell size, and lot uniformity), firmness,
bloaters, and other defects in October. Quality was evaluated by judges from
industry: Phil Denlinger, Sonny Coghill, Lawrence Crocker, Bob Quinn, and
Janet Turner (Mt. Olive), Eddie Quill, Darrel Hawley, Rachel Huerta, and Carlos
Gurrala (Dean Foods), Curtiss and John Cates (Addis Cates Co.), Mike Cain
(Sunseeds), and Bill Rankin (Harris Moran).
Fruit quality was evaluated using a rating system (that approximated letter
grades) from 1 to 9, where 9 = A+, 8 = A, 7 = A-, 6 = B+, 5 = B, 4 = B-, 3 = C,
2 = D, 1 = F. Bloaters and defects were measured as percentage of fruits with
damage in a sample of 20 grade 3B fruits. Firmness was measured by punching 10
grade 2B fruits with a Magness-Taylor tester (having a 5/16" diameter tip). All
cultigens were randomized, replicated and coded to prevent bias and provide a
measure of error variance.
Results
The cultigens are presented in order by decreasing fruit quality in Table 1, and
are ranked for resistance to bloaters and defects in Tables 2 and 3, respectively.
Fruit texture and firmness rankings are in Table 4. The average quality ratings
assigned by each judge in the test are presented in Table 5, showing how lenient
each judge was relative to the others. Due to insufficient replication, the
bloater data showed few significant differences among cultigens.
Summary
- The cultigens with best fruit quality in brinestock were Calypso, Vlaspik,
Colt, Napoleon, and Cross Country.
- The most bloater resistant cultigens were Calypso, Patton, Cross Country,
Premio, and Johnston.
- As usual, brinestock firmness (from the punch test) was only partially
correlated with texture (subjective rating from the judges), so the two
traits are measurements of different aspects of cucumber fruit firmness.
- Judges ranged from Gurrola, who was the most liberal in quality ratings to
Curtiss Cates, who was the most conservative. Analysis of variance indicated
significant differences among judges for the way they rated fruit quality.
However, interaction of judge with cultigen was non-significant (all judges
gave good cultigens high ratings, and bad cultigens low ratings).
________________________
z Thanks to Mt. Olive Pickle Co., Mt. Olive, N.C. for assistance in brining the
cucumbers, and for providing the facilities for evaluating the cultigens tested.
Thanks also to the personnel at the Horticultural Crops Research Station,
Clinton, N.C. for help in running the field trials.
Table 1. Brinestock evaluation - quality ratings (cultigens are ranked by
average quality).z
_________________________________________________________________________________
Cultivar Seed Average Extrnal Text- Seed Uniform-
Rank or line source quality Shape color ure cell ity
_________________________________________________________________________________
1 Calypso NCState Univ 6.2 6.3 5.9 6.1 6.3 6.6
2 Vlaspik Seminis 6.2 5.9 6.8 5.7 6.0 6.7
3 Colt Seminis 6.1 6.1 6.5 5.4 6.1 6.3
4 Napoleon(3502) SunSeeds 5.9 6.2 6.6 5.2 5.4 6.3
5 CrossCountry4318 Harris Moran 5.9 5.6 6.1 5.9 6.1 6.0
6 HMX-0469 Harris Moran 5.9 5.7 5.4 5.5 6.1 6.6
7 Arabian Seminis 5.8 6.0 6.8 4.8 5.2 6.5
8 Jackson(3540) SunSeeds 5.8 5.8 6.8 5.2 5.2 6.1
9 Royal Harris Moran 5.8 5.7 6.3 5.6 5.0 6.3
10 WI6856Ax6760B Wis-USDA 5.7 6.1 5.8 5.2 5.2 6.4
11 HMX-0468 Harris Moran 5.7 5.1 6.6 5.4 5.1 6.3
12 Johnston NCState Univ 5.7 5.6 6.4 5.4 4.9 6.1
13 Premio Sakata 5.7 5.8 5.2 5.5 5.6 6.2
14 Raleigh NCState Univ 5.7 5.9 6.2 5.2 4.7 6.3
15 Vlasstar(10489) Seminis 5.6 5.6 6.2 5.1 5.3 5.9
16 Patton (3528) SunSeeds 5.5 5.4 6.1 5.0 5.5 5.7
17 Palomino(1911) Seminis 5.4 5.3 6.3 4.9 5.1 5.6
18 SRQP-2861 SunSeeds 5.4 5.5 6.2 4.7 4.9 5.8
19 Manteo NCState Univ 5.4 5.1 6.2 4.9 4.8 6.0
20 Macarthur SunSeeds 5.3 4.8 6.2 4.9 4.9 5.9
21 Wis.SMR 18 Univ. Wis. 5.3 5.5 4.3 5.3 5.1 6.1
_________________________________________________________________________________
LSD (5%) 0.4 0.6 0.4 0.6 0.6 0.5
Mean 5.7 5.7 6.1 5.2 5.4 6.1
CV (%) 15.8 22.7 15.7 25.4 27.3 18.6
_________________________________________________________________________________
z Quality rated 1 to 9 (9=A+, 8=A, 7=A-, 6=B+, 5=B, 4=B-, 3=C, 2=D, 1=F).
Correlation (Shape with Uniformity) = 0.59**
Correlation (Texture with Seedcell) = 0.92**
Table 2. Brinestock evaluation - percentage of fruit damaged by bloaters
(cultigens are ranked by balloon bloater resistance).
_________________________________________________________________________________
Cultivar Seed Total Honey-
Rank or line source bloaters Balloon Lens comb
_________________________________________________________________________________
1 Calypso NCState Univ 4 2 2 0
2 Patton (3528) SunSeeds 5 3 1 1
3 CrossCountry4318 Harris Moran 6 3 3 1
4 Premio Sakata 7 3 2 2
5 Johnston NCState Univ 4 4 0 0
6 Royal Harris Moran 6 4 1 1
7 Raleigh NCState Univ 8 5 2 1
8 Vlaspik Seminis 8 6 3 0
9 Wis.SMR 18 Univ. Wis. 7 6 0 1
10 Manteo NCState Univ 10 6 3 1
11 Colt Seminis 11 7 3 2
12 HMX-0469 Harris Moran 12 7 4 2
13 WI6856Ax6760B Wis-USDA 9 7 2 0
14 Vlasstar(10489) Seminis 8 8 0 0
15 HMX-0468 Harris Moran 15 8 3 4
16 Jackson(3540) SunSeeds 13 9 3 1
17 Macarthur SunSeeds 15 9 4 2
18 Napoleon(3502) SunSeeds 12 10 2 0
19 Palomino(1911) Seminis 17 11 4 2
20 SRQP-2861 SunSeeds 15 14 1 0
21 Arabian Seminis 21 14 4 3
________________________________________________________________________________
LSD (5%) 10 8 4 2
Mean 10 7 2 1
CV (%) 62 69 111 143
________________________________________________________________________________
Table 3. Brinestock evaluation - percentage of fruit damaged by defects
(cultigens are ranked by resistance to defects).
_________________________________________________________________________________
Blossom-
Cultivar Seed Total Placental end Soft
Rank or line source defects hollows defects centers
_________________________________________________________________________________
1 CrossCountry4318 Harris Moran 1 1 0 0
2 Colt Seminis 1 1 0 0
3 Calypso NCState Univ 3 0 1 2
4 Jackson(3540) SunSeeds 3 0 1 2
5 HMX-0468 Harris Moran 3 1 1 1
6 Patton (3528) SunSeeds 3 1 2 1
7 Napoleon(3502) SunSeeds 3 0 1 2
8 Wis.SMR 18 Univ. Wis. 4 4 0 0
9 Royal Harris Moran 4 0 0 4
10 Vlaspik Seminis 4 2 1 1
11 HMX-0469 Harris Moran 4 3 1 0
12 Macarthur SunSeeds 4 1 1 2
13 Palomino(1911) Seminis 5 2 1 2
14 Arabian Seminis 5 5 0 0
15 Manteo NCState Univ 6 3 0 3
16 Premio Sakata 8 1 1 5
17 Johnston NCState Univ 8 2 1 5
18 WI6856Ax6760B Wis-USDA 8 2 0 6
19 Raleigh NCState Univ 8 2 3 3
20 SRQP-2861 SunSeeds 9 1 3 5
21 Vlasstar(10489) Seminis 10 1 2 7
_________________________________________________________________________________
LSD (5%) 5 3 3 4
Mean 5 2 1 17
CV (%) 64 130 183 7
_________________________________________________________________________________
Table 4. Brinestock evaluation - firmness and texture of fruit, and resistance
to bloaters and defects (cultigens are ranked by firmness).z
_________________________________________________________________________________
Firm- Total
Cultivar Seed ness Text- bloaters Total Bal-
Rank or line source (lb.) ure & defects bloaters loon Defects
_________________________________________________________________________________
1 Palomino(1911) Seminis 19.5 4.9 21 17 11 5
2 Calypso NCState Univ 19.0 6.1 7 4 2 3
3 Johnston NCState Univ 18.6 5.4 12 4 4 8
4 Vlaspik Seminis 18.3 5.7 12 8 6 4
5 HMX-0469 Harris Moran 17.9 5.5 16 12 7 4
6 Colt Seminis 17.9 5.4 13 11 7 1
7 Premio Sakata 17.8 5.5 14 7 3 8
8 Wis.SMR 18 Univ. Wis. 17.7 5.3 11 7 6 4
9 Vlasstar(10489) Seminis 17.4 5.1 18 8 8 10
10 CrossCountry4318 Harris Moran 17.2 5.9 7 6 3 1
11 Royal Harris Moran 17.1 5.6 10 6 4 4
12 WI6856Ax6760B Wis-USDA 17.1 5.2 17 9 7 8
13 Raleigh NCState Univ 17.0 5.2 16 8 5 8
14 HMX-0468 Harris Moran 16.5 5.4 18 15 8 3
15 Patton (3528) SunSeeds 16.5 5.0 8 5 3 3
16 Arabian Seminis 16.4 4.8 26 21 14 5
17 Macarthur SunSeeds 16.0 4.9 19 15 9 4
18 Manteo NCState Univ 15.6 4.9 16 10 6 6
19 Jackson(3540) SunSeeds 15.5 5.2 16 13 9 3
20 Napoleon(3502) SunSeeds 14.5 5.2 15 12 10 3
21 SRQP-2861 SunSeeds 14.4 4.7 24 15 14 9
_________________________________________________________________________________
LSD (5%) 2.0 11 10 8 5
Mean 17.0 15 10 7 5
CV (%) 7.3 43 62 69 64
_________________________________________________________________________________
z Firmness determined by punch-testing (Magness-Taylor) 10 grade 2B fruits.
Correlation of Texture with: Firmness = -0.35**, Balloon = -0.84**
Correlation of Texture with: Honeycomb = -0.49**, Soft centers = -0.33**
Table 5. Brinestock evaluation - quality ratings assigned by the judges
(judges are ranked by leniency).z
_________________________________________________________________________________
Average External Seed Uniform-
Rank Judge quality Shape color Texture cell ity
_________________________________________________________________________________
1 Gurrola 6.7 6.8 7.1 6.8 6.2 6.7
2 Denlinger 6.4 6.1 6.7 6.3 6.0 6.9
3 Crocker 6.3 5.9 6.6 5.3 6.6 7.0
4 Turner 6.2 5.6 5.7 6.5 6.3 6.7
5 Rankin 6.0 5.7 5.9 6.2 6.1 6.3
6 Huerta 5.8 6.3 7.1 4.9 5.5 5.3
7 Coghill 5.8 5.9 6.3 5.4 5.5 5.7
8 Quill 5.7 6.2 6.3 4.9 4.9 6.3
9 Quinn 5.3 4.9 5.5 4.9 4.3 7.2
10 Cain 5.3 5.4 6.0 4.7 4.5 5.9
11 Hawley 5.2 5.5 6.0 4.4 4.4 5.5
12 Cates,J 4.9 4.2 5.3 4.1 5.3 5.5
13 Cates,C 4.8 5.3 5.2 4.3 4.1 5.1
_________________________________________________________________________________
z Quality rated 1 to 9 (9=A+, 8=A, 7=A-, 6=B+, 5=B, 4=B-, 3=C, 2=D, 1=F).