A researcher at the University of Sydney is about to release several new cucumber seed varieties that are specifically suited to harsh Australian environmental conditions. 

Many of the varieties currently grown in the country were developed in high-tech European greenhouses under optimal conditions, and often resulted in poor quality when produced in simpler Australian greenhouses.

Dr Nabil Ahmad told www.freshfruitportal.com not only will his new cucumber seeds produce a superior fruit quality than many other popular commercial varieties, but they will also have a better taste.

"The whole breeding program from A to Z is done under Australian conditions and that’s why the developed varieties will be more suitable for growers here," Ahmad said.

"Current varieties have mostly been bred under the fully controlled greenhouse conditions in Europe, and those greenhouses have the optimum conditions of lighting, temperature, humidity, nutrients, everything is fully controlled.

"When these varieties are tried by the commercial growers in Australia, they might not be up to the high standards."

The cucumbers are currently being trialed in Australia and several other places throughout the world that could stand to benefit from the varieties that are more tolerant to harsher conditions.

"We are trying them right now in the Middle East, Indonesia, in some parts of the United States, in India, and very soon in Europe," he said.

Ahmad has been developing several varieties over three years in his company Abundant Produce and has received considerable financial backing from private investors.

The varieties include both multi-fruiting summer and single fruiting winter plants, along with a smaller sized one dubbed the 'CuteCumber'. It grows no more than 10 or 11 centimeters long and is mainly intended for use in children's lunch boxes.

"It's growing now in Australia, and it's becoming more and more popular. It's really a very economic size, usually kids don't want to consumer a whole cucumber. You would normally have to cut it first which would make it less fresh," Ahmad said.

"But if you were to take a whole cucumber and eat it fresh it is a good source of vitamins."

All the varieties were developed via the method of crossbreeding, rather than genetic modification, so parental lines were used for breeding that were more tolerant to the biotic stresses, such as diseases and infections, and abiotic stresses, being environmental factors like humidity and temperature.

"We combine genes together by crossbreeding then we employ breeding methods with evaluation and selection under the greenhouse conditions with all the pressures of the biotic and the abiotic stresses," Ahmad said.

Along with being more tolerant to Australian conditions, Ahmad also said his new varieties would perform better than many popular ones in terms of taste and internal quality.

"Taste is a very important subject that we're really focusing on. The flavor is an important breeding objective we have, of course despite standard objectives like the yield and the other quality parameters," Ahmad.

Ahmad went on to say he was feeling optimistic about how the new cucumbers would fare not only in Australia, but in other world markets as well.

"We feel very positive because we have now finished a number of trials in Australia and the results were very positive compared with the strongest and the most competitive commercial varieties that we have here," he said.

And our varieties have the advantage of being even more tolerant to the biotic and abiotic stresses, so that gives us a very good feeling that they will be very successful, not only in Australia, but also in other countries."

Along with cucumbers, Ahmad is also developing multiple tomato varieties for the harsh environmental conditions. These include tomatoes of various shapes and sizes, including specialty varieties shaped like strawberries.

"We are very active in tomatoes, though the breeding program is more advanced. But we are also very close to the final stages of producing tomatoes varieties that have the yield, and quality parameters besides the tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses," he said.

Ahmad added he would like to expand to developing new varieties for other crops in the future, such as eggplant, pepper, zucchini (courgette), and pumpkin.

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