Cucumber

The phrase “cool as a cucumber” says it all: Cucumbers convince consumers with their freshness and their cooling sensation. 95 percent of it is water, so they’re a perfect source of hydration on hot summer days. 

Cucumbers have been cultivated for at least 3,000 years. Originating from India, they have conquered the global market, growing all over the world today. They’re a staple in a healthy diet, adding their unmistakable aroma to salads, sandwiches, soups, dips, juices and serving as a popular snack.

BASF offers high-quality seeds for over 150 cucumber varieties in three segments: long, short and slicer cucumber. Our breeding caters to the different needs of high-tech, low-tech and open-field cultivation. We collaborate closely with growers to make sure that our varieties meet their fundamental needs – such as speedy growing and resistances for open-field farming, smaller sizes and uniform shape for the growing convenience segment or optimum conditions for processing in the large pickling industry. 

The future of growing: high-wire cultivation

For over 20 years, BASF has also been breeding high-wire cucumbers, catering to the most advanced technology setting in the high-tech segment that is prevalent in Western and Northern Europe and North America. High-wire cultivation not only offers growers extremely high productivity, consistently high fruit quality, easier harvesting and thus lower labor costs as well as the potential for year-round production. It also promotes sustainability by enabling higher amounts of yield on limited space and making cultivation possible close to the consumer, cutting down on transport requirements.

As the high-wire industry requires special varieties with a different plant structure, smaller, horizontally positioned leaves, a higher photosynthesis activity and short internodes, our breeders apply their ample expertise and long-term experience to optimize our seeds for this future-oriented growing method.