Botanical Name: Cucumis sativus & ORIENTAL PICKLING MELON -Cucumis melo var. conomon
Varieties:

Oriental Pickling Melon Varieties:
Mudicode local: Golden coloured, large sized long fruit tapering at one end.
Soubhagya:Unique small to medium sized oblong green fruits with light green stripes, which turn golden yellow on ripening. Early variety suitable for close planting.
Arunima:Uniform large cylindrical fruits that are bright green with creamy spots at tender stage and attractive orange yellow at ripening.

Cucumber Varieties:
AAU C-2: Long cylindrical and whitish fruits.
Poinsette:Dark medium long fruits.Resistant to many fungal diseases.
Seethal: Early variety.Green fruits of medium length.
CO 1:Long fruits with a characteristic narrow neck.

Climate & Soil: Warm season crop.Prefers sandy loam soils.
Season: January-March, September-December and May- August.
Seed rate: 0.5-0.75 kg/ha
Seeds available with VFPCK: Mudicode local
Spacing: Take the pits at a spacing of 2X1.5 m and the seeds are sown @ 4-5 per pit. After two weeks remove the unhealthy plants retaining three plants per pit.
Nutrient management : Apply FYM @ 20-25 t/ha as basal dose along with half dose of N (35 kg) and full dose of P2O5 (25 kg) and K2O (25 kg/ha). The remaining dose of N (35 kg) can be applied in two equal split doses at the time of vining and at the time of full blooming.
Crop Management: For trailing, spread dried twigs or coconut leaves on the ground.Spraying the crop with Ethrel at the rate of 3-3.5ml in 10ltr of water will increase the production of female flowers.
Pest Management :

• Epilachna beetle : Both adult and grubs scrape the leaf lamina and skeletanise the leaves. Ekalux 25EC 2ml/l, mechanical control.
• Fruit fly : Adult flies insert the eggs inside the fruits and the maggots feed on the fruit. Malathion 50 EC 2 .2ml/l, mechanical control, bait traps.
• American serpentine leaf miner : Eats away the chlorophyll of the leaves leaving snake like white scars on the leaf lamina.Neem oil emulsion 2.5%
• Pumpkin beetle : Adults feed on the leaves and the grubs bore the roots. Soil drenching with Ekalux 2ml/l, mechanical control.

Disease Management :

• Downy mildew : Yellow spots on the upper surface and water soaked fungal spots on the lower surface of leaves.Dithane M.45 4g/l, field sanitation.
• Powdery mildew : Ashy spots on the leaves and stem. Apply Karathane 1g/l, field sanitation.
• Mosaic : Yellow and green mottled appearance on leaves. Seed treatment Bavistin 2g/kg, mechanical control.

Harvesting: The first harvesting of fruits can be done 45-55 days after sowing.
Yield: 10-12 t/ha.