| Pickling cucumber is an important crop of South Texas. However, the production area is threatened by salinity from irrigation water that causes up to 20% in yield reduction. From previous studies, there is enough genetic variability for development and improvement of salt tolerance in the cucumber germplasm collection at Texas A& M University Vegetable Breeding Program.;By using visual evaluation and selection of individual plants based on overall phenotypic performance such as comparable overall growth, plant height, leaf size, lack of chlorosis and necrosis in a controlled and uniform environment in a laboratory setting, it was possible to select five potentially salt tolerant lines from 54 F6 lines. Further selective crosses were carried out and leaf sugar and cation analyses were performed as an attempt to find possible biochemical markers for salt tolerance.;Salt treatment was found to have a significant effect on concentration of glucose, but not fructose, sucrose, or total sugars in first true leaves. It was also found to have a significant effect on leaf concentrations of potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sodium, but not phosphorus.;Cucumbers are classified as a salt excluder. The salt susceptibility symptoms and chemical analyses observed in this study were in agreement with previous studies. However, the lack of the ability to exclude Na in cucumber plants with the homozygous recessive genotype (ss) is not related to the increase in glucose concentration in their first true leaves. |
