Cucumber variety Graceful
Graceful - an old, time-tested early-ripening cucumber variety. O.V. Yurina at the All-Russian Research Institute for Breeding and Seed Production of Vegetable Crops (VNIISSOK village, Moscow Region). Added to the state register of the Russian Federation in 1971. Approved for use in the Far East, East Siberian, West Siberian, Ural, Middle Volga, Volgo-Vyatka, Central and North-West regions. The first fruits can be harvested 40 to 45 days after germination.
The variety is bee-pollinated, gives a large number of male flowers - this property allows it to be used as a pollinator for other varieties. Designed for growing in the open field and spring film heifers. Plants are medium-growing, form up to 5 - 6 lateral shoots.
Cucumbers are leveled, elliptical, with small tubercles, 9 - 12 cm long, weighing 130 - 150 grams. The skin is thin, light green in color, with white stripes and a white top. The pulp is juicy, crispy, sweetish, without bitterness. Marketable yield is low - 5 - 7 kg / square meter.
A variety of salad type, but it is also used for canning.
Cucumber Graceful is characterized by increased cold resistance, so it can be used for early sowing. Resistant to olive spot and moderately resistant to bacteriosis. The fruits do not turn yellow.
The advantages of this cucumber include: early ripeness, high taste, unpretentiousness, inexpensive seeds.
Disadvantages: a large number of white-sided fruits that look ugly in blanks; when pickling, voids are formed in the fruits; sometimes the fruits are sour in salting.
I try a large number of hybrids and strains all the time, but Graceful is an old-timer. I have been planting it in the garden for many years. Firstly, it is a good pollinator for other varieties, and secondly, it gives a stable harvest in different years, regardless of weather conditions.
The variety does not require a special approach when forming the stem; when pinched on 4 leaves, it gives a sufficient number of lateral shoots, and, accordingly, fruits. Resistant to diseases - even in an unfavorable summer, you can count on it.
This variety has very beautiful and fragrant greens, small seeds and very juicy tender pulp. If you choose cucumbers regularly, every other day, then beautiful jars with even and neat pickled and salted fruits can be harvested from them for the winter.
We can safely recommend it for beginners, it will not let you down.
I have been familiar with this cucumber for a long time, and, despite the current abundance of new hybrids and varieties, I do not refuse it. Every year I plant two or three varieties on the garden bed, and almost every time there is an "elegant" one among them. How does this cucumber suit me? Cold hardy and early maturing. And in the short and cool summer of the Ivanovo region, this is very important. I sow dry seeds on the garden bed, water and cover for the first time with a covering material - until stable warm weather. The cucumber fully lives up to its name - small, with delicate skin and small seeds, in one word - graceful. Although the yield is not great, but the taste is excellent. I do not advise preserving, the can may explode, in any case it happened to me. But fresh - wonderful.