Effects of sowing dates on the yield and harvesting periods of pickling cucumber in GAP area

This study was carried out in Koruklu Research Station of Sanliurfa during 1995-1996 years. Sanliurfa province is in GAP area which is new irrigated agricultural region in south-eastern Anatolian part of Turkey. Cucumber cultivars Fancipak, Marinda, Donja, Ophix, Milglas, Pict, Niz 50-114 have been tried in four different sowing dates starting from the first week of April and continued by 15 days intervals. In ecological conditions of Harran Plain the highest yields in pickling cucumber were obtained from the sowing dates of first part of April. The average yields of two years and seven varieties were 830 g/plant, 834 g/plant, 583 g/plant and 495 g/plant from sowing in the beginning of April, middle of April, beginning of May and middle of May, respectively. Among used cultivars, Milglas, Niz 50-114, Fancipak and Ophix were found to be the highest productive while Marinda and Pict cultivars were the lowest productive ones. Significant effects of sowing times on the fruit size were not observed, however, Donja, Marinda, Ophix and Fancipak cultivars have fruited bigger than others.