The Influence Of Parents, Mating Systems And Seeding Date On The Transfer Of Gynoecious Flowering To Cucumbers

Gynoecious inbred lines of cucumbers with high(HF), medium(MF) and low(LF) percentage of gynoecious plants were used in crosses with monoecious Chinese cultivars with high(HN), medium(MN) and low(LN) percentage of nodes with female flowers. F1 and F2 progenies from these parents crossed in all combinations were studied to determine the effect of levels of female flowering expression of gynoecious and monoecious parents on the percent gynoecious plants.The effect of mating systems on percent gynoecious plants was studied in F3 families from crosses of HF,MF and LF gynoecious lines with an HN monoecious parent. The effect of planting date on percent gynoecious plants was studied in the F2 progenies of an HF gynoecious line crossed with an HN monoecious cultivar. Level of female flowering tendency, expressed by percentage of female flowering nodes, in the monoecious parents had a much greater effect on the percentage of gynoecious plants in the F1 and F2 generation than did the degree of female flowering in the gynoecious parents. The effect of the gynoecious parent and the interaction of gynoecious X monoecious parent on percent gynoecious plants in the F1 were non significant.In the mating system study, self pollination of selected completely gynoecious plants, requiring male flowering induction by chemical treatment, was significant more effective in obtaining highly gynoecious progeny lines than selfing predominately gynoecious plants or sib-mating predominately gynoecious and completely gynoecious plants. There was no interaction between mating system and level of female flowering in the gynoecious parents.