THE INFLUENCE OF ANTI-STRESS FERTILIZERS ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF GREENHOUSE CUCUMBER

Abstract

Cucumber is the leader in terms of production areas and gross harvest among
greenhouse vegetables in Russia. In order to ensure the adaptability of plants to unfavourable
factors in greenhouse conditions, biologically active substances are used. They serve many
functions, including anti-stress one. The aim of the research is to evaluate the effect of
biologically active substances with anti-stress properties on cucumber productivity in
greenhouse conditions. The research was conducted in the winter-spring period of 2019-2020
in the greenhouse complex of Stavropol State Agrarian University. The objects of research
were Mamluk F1 cucumber, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, tryptophan. Cucumber was grown in
a greenhouse using a vertical farming technology and mineral wool was used as a substrate.
As a result of treatment cucumber plants with amino acids that influence on growth processes,
there was an increase in the leaf area relative to the control by 0.022-0.04 m2/plant. When
using amino acids, the volume of the root system increased relative to the control by 15.3-
32.5 ml/plant. The research showed that the studied amino acids had powerful anti-stress
properties. As a result, the degree of cucumber ovaries death decreased relative to the control
by 3.2-5.4 %. The lowest degree of cucumber ovaries death was observed during foliar
application of plants with tryptophan – 14.0 %. A significant difference between the control
and use of aspartic and glutamic acids was 1.5-5.4 %. Foliar application of cucumber with
amino acids contributed to a significant increase in the yield of cucumber standard products in
comparison to the control by 1.9-3.4 %. The increase in cucumber yield when using amino
acids in comparison to the control was 1.2-2.3 kg/m2. The highest efficiency was obtained
when using the amino acid tryptophan, which provided the highest yield of standard products
and cucumber yield – 88.0 % and 27.4 kg/m2, respectively.