Kern 121 F1 Cucumber

Kern 121 is an F1 hybrid cucumber with light green, cylindrical fruits of 19–22 cm. Picking starts at 43–45 days.

Sowing window

• Sowing: year round, except June–July
• Main open-field crop: February to March in Haryana, Punjab, West UP and Rajasthan, once frost is over — the PoP window for cucumber in the open
• Autumn crop: August to September in the open, after the heavy rains
• Early crop under cover: mid-November to December on 2.5 m beds under low plastic tunnels (sheet removed in February), or September and January sowings in a polynet house
• Land: well-drained loam. Seed germinates best at about 25°C; the crop is very sensitive to frost

How to sow

• Seed rate: about 200–300 g per acre with F1 seed — one seed per hill at the spacing below, with a few seeds kept for gap filling (the PoP uses about 13,000 seeds per acre for its closer polynet spacing). The PoP figure of 1 kg per acre is for ordinary open-pollinated seed
• Spacing: beds 2.5 m wide, seed sown on both sides of the bed 60 cm apart (45 cm under low tunnel or polynet)
• Depth: 1.5–2 cm on the side of the bed, on pre-irrigated soil
• Seed treatment: if the seed is not already treated, dress it with Trichoderma (4 g/kg) or Carbendazim (2 g/kg) against damping-off
• Pack size: 10 g — enough for roughly 150–200 m², a kitchen-garden or trial plot; an acre needs 20–30 packs

Manure and fertiliser (per acre)

• FYM / compost: 8–10 tonnes of well-rotted manure before the beds are made
• Nitrogen (N): 40 kg (90 kg urea) — one-third at sowing, the rest at about one month when the vines start to run
• Phosphorus (P₂O₅): 20 kg (125 kg single superphosphate), all at sowing
• Potash (K₂O): 20 kg (35 kg muriate of potash), all at sowing
• Placement: put the sowing dose in two bands about 15 cm away from the seed line on the bed, not in contact with the seed

Water, weeds and pests

• Irrigation: sow on pre-irrigated beds and give a light irrigation on the second or third day; then every 4–6 days — 10–12 irrigations in all. Never flood the beds: standing water brings downy mildew and root rot
• Weeds: hoe lightly 2–3 times in the first month, before the vines spread
• Pests and disease: scout the vines regularly and spray only as per label and your state advisory
• Pests to watch: red pumpkin beetle on seedlings (dust dung ash on young plants weekly), aphids and whitefly (they spread mosaic — a neem extract spray early in the season helps), fruit fly and red spider mite in hot weather
• Diseases to watch: downy mildew and powdery mildew in humid weather, collar rot in wet soil, and mosaic virus — pull out affected plants early

Where it will not do well

We do not recommend sowing in June–July. The humid monsoon weather brings downy mildew, powdery mildew and fruit fly, and the fruit quality suffers. The crop also cannot stand frost: in December–January sow only under a low tunnel or polyhouse.

Harvest

• First picking: 43–45 days
• Fruit: cylindrical, light green, 19–22 cm long, 4–5 cm across, 200–250 g
• Stage: pick young and tender, while the seeds inside are still soft and before the skin starts turning yellow. Pick every 2–3 days — fruits left on the vine stop new ones from setting

Please quote product code KERN-121 when ordering.

Crop practices follow state agricultural university recommendations for North India; confirm doses for your district with your Kern dealer or KVK.

Agronomy helpline: 9107062062