On-farm Trial #1:
Location: DeMotte IN
Transplant date: April 24
Heating: Plants were grown in an unheated high tunnel
Plant No. and plants lost:
Treatment | Original plant number | Plants lost by June 12 | Plants lost by July 20 |
Manny | 31 | 19% | 55% |
Manny/Carnivor | 35 | 11% | 34% |
Green | 39 | 10% | 38% |
Green/Carnivor | 39 | 0% | 8% |
Spacing: 12 inches apart
Harvest duration: June 12-July 27
Yield:
Treatment | Yield (lb) | Yield (#) |
Manny | 43.1 | 92 |
Manny/Carnivor | 79.5 | 159 |
Green | 91.8 | 186 |
Green/Carnivor | 148.4 | 288 |
On-farm Trial #2:
Location: Newburgh, IN
Transplant date: March 30
Heating: Plants were grown in an unheated high tunnel
Plant No. and plants lost:
Treatment | Original plant number | Plants lost by Apr. 12 |
Taurus | 25 | 76% |
Taurus/Carnivor | 36 | 25% |
Spacing:
Harvest duration: May 19-Sep 9
Yield:
Treatment | Yield (lb) | Yield (#) |
Taurus | 146 | 149 |
Taurus/Carnivor | 1017 | 1061 |
On-farm Trial #3:
Location: Middletown, OH
Transplant date: March 19
Heating: Plants were grown in an unheated high tunnel
Plant No. and plants lost:
Spacing: 12’’
Harvest duration: May 19-Sep 16
Yield:
Treatment | Yield (#)/plant |
Corinto | 18.31 |
Corinto/Carnivor | 17.42 |
Unistar | 45.52 |
Unistar/Carnivor | 57.04 |
Hydroponic Picolino | 56.92 |
Grower notes: Both Corinto and Unistar Grafted plants suckered twice as much as the non-grafted plants. We sucker all our Cucumbers the say way, we remove them all as we single leader them. Grafted plants had a noticeable growth height on them later part of April and this really showed up in May when we had to lower and lean the Corinto almost 2 weeks before lowering and leaning the non-grafted. We experimented with a Hydroponic Bato Bucket system this year. In the same hoop house that we grew your cucumbers. Just a little bit of difference in the mini cucumber varieties but all in the same I believe I need to pay more attention to detail on my nutrient levels in the soil grown cucumbers.
On-farm Trial #4:
Location: Siver Lake, IN
Transplant date: March 5
Heating: Plants were grown in a heated high tunnel
Plant No. and plants lost: about 45 plants for each grafted and non-grafted were planted. Lost 22 non-grafted plants on March 23th, lost 3 grafted plants on June 12.
Spacing: 12’’
Harvest duration: May 8- July 24
Yield:
Treatment | Yield (lb) | Yield (#) |
Corinto | 108 | 206 |
Corinto/Carnivor | 131 | 274 |
Grower notes: worth it? Corinto did not produce the yield it had last year. The plants did not take off like last year. Was it because of the cold seeping in through the boards? Early on soil temps were around 60 F. The plants were closer to the edge of the greenhouse than the previous year. Would that have affected their growth? If the plants produced more it would have been worth it, however, due to low yields this year I would say it wasn’t. It would be nice if a seed company would offer grafted cucumbers. The amount of money to graft can get costly for a small farmer.
On-farm Trial #5:
Location: Siver Lake, IN
Transplant date: Apr. 2
Heating: Plants were grown in an unheated high tunnel, but used temporary heater on Apr. 14, Apr. 15, May 8.
Plant No. and plants lost: planted 25 non-grafted Socrates, 50 Socrates/Carnivor. Lost 20% (5 plants) of non-grafted plants a week after transplanting, no lost for grafted plants.
Spacing: 12’’
Harvest duration: May 14- July 27
Yield:
Treatment | Yield (lb) | Yield (#) |
Socrates | 138 | 288 |
Socrates/Carnivor | 293 | 518 |
Grower notes: Yes, we had a great yield most of the season. In fact for a couple weeks we wholesaled some to another farmers because we had more than we could sell at farmers market. Customers preferred Socrates over Corinto saying they had better flavor. No customers noticed a difference in flavor between grafted and non-grafted cucumbers. They produced about 2 months which is what we typically get out of cucumbers before beetle damage kills them. Our customers ask that we no t spray our produce. This year due to Covid-19, we couldn’t even when we wanted to. However, beneficial insects took over helping our flight.
I plan on grafting cucumbers for next year to have them early. We were getting #2 a cucumber at market for about a month then we dropped to #1 for the remaining season.
On-farm Trial #6:
Location: Bloomington, IN
Transplant date: around March 15
Heating: Plants were grown in an unheated high tunnel
Plant No. and plants lost: 22 non-grafted and 22 grafted plants. All 22 of the non-grafted plants died, all 22 of the grafted plants survived. Replanted all the non-grafted plants on Apr. 14
Spacing:
Harvest duration: Grafted plants start harvest on May 14, non-grafted plants start to harvest on May 28. Harvest both ended on July 28
Yield:
Treatment | Yield (lb) | Yield (#) |
Corinto | 164 | 106.77 |
Corinto/Carnivor | 361 | 258.76 |