Cucumber yield in organic cultivation using seedlings produced with different substrate volumes

Abstract

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect the cucumber (Nagai Hybrid) yield in organic cultivation using seedlings produced with different substrate volumes. The experiment was installed at the Seridó Ecological Site, in Rio Branco, Acre, in a complete randomized block design with four replications of six plants per plot. Five volumes of substrates (114, 285, 456, 627 and 798 cm³) were tested. As seedlings were transplanted 26 days after sowing at a spacing of 0.90 x 0.50 m. Between 26 and 85 days after transplantation, the number of commercial fruits, mass of commercial fruits, total and commercial consumption was recorded. There was no significant influence between the procedures for the number and mass of commercial fruits. The cucumber yield was influenced by the seedlings quality modification with different volumes of substrates, responding in quadratic function with maximum point in 577 cm³ of substrate and 27,138.75 kg ha^-1 of fruit. The marketable fruit yield responded to a linear function, with increases of 12.85 kg ha^-¹ to increase each cm³ of substrate, reaching 24,002.8 kg ha^-1 of marketable fruit.