Cucumbers “Director F1” continue the series of Dutch hybrids of the “Herman F1” variety, obtained and improved as a result of selection of the same parental lines. “Director F1” was bred by the seed company Nunhems BV (Netherlands), patented and registered in the State Registers of Russia (in 2013), Ukraine (in 2013) and Belarus (in 2022).
"Seeds Partner"
The producer of cucumber seeds “Director F1” is Dutch. Since 02/11/2019, the official distributor of the “Director F1” variety is Rossiyskaya. You can purchase seeds by weight (in professional packaging) from Agrofirm Partner LLC. Phone Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You must have JavaScript enabled to view it. Buy cucumber seeds Director F1 at retail - in the online store semena-partner.ru
The hybrid "Director F1" is considered one of the high-yielding ones, and its fruits have an excellent presentation
The cucumber variety “Director F1” is recommended for cultivation in open ground in the North Caucasus region, but is perfectly cultivated in greenhouse conditions throughout Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The hybrid is considered a professional farm crop, intended for commercial production in the first (early spring) and second (summer-autumn) rotations.
Description of qualities
You can only compare the Director with his advanced Dutch brothers, because there is no point in comparing, for example, top-level athletes, world champions with backyard physical education enthusiasts.
It is considered mid-season; under normal conditions, it begins to bear fruit within 40–50 days from germination. However, in practice, it outstrips its mid-ripening counterparts, for example, Herman, by about 5–7 days, so it has a tendency towards early-ripening hybrids.
Therefore, its completely correct designation is early-mid-ripening.
The fruits have a beautiful presentation, unrivaled on the shelves, “just like in the picture.” Noble malachite, rich dark green color, almost without white stripes, light pubescence.
It is optimal to collect fruits up to 12 cm in size and weighing up to 80 g. Of course, if you wish, you can collect greens in the size of pickles - 3-5 cm, and in the size of stables - 5-8 cm, but this will lead to a shortfall in the total weight of the crop.
There is also little point in growing seedlings larger than 100 g - this is already a non-commercial coarse fruit, also purely for amateurs. And it also leads to a loss of the total weight of the crop, because the vine devotes all its energy to the growth of large fruits and the growth of new ovaries slows down.
It tolerates shade better than other Dutch hybrids.
In terms of care, it is no different from its series.
The greens are juicy, tasty, with a small amount of small soft seeds. Without the tendency to bitterness, which sometimes occurs in greens of all varieties due to the presence of the protective substance cucurbicitan in the fruits.
differ from other hybrids in darker color
Self-pollinating. The best results are obtained when grown in closed ground - greenhouses, film tunnels, temporary shelters.
Productivity is high and long lasting.
It goes well on salads and in non-airtight pickling. Opinions differ regarding canning under an airtight lid.
Harvesting and storage
The fruits of the Director variety cucumbers are harvested as they grow. It is advisable to pick the first cucumbers immediately, without waiting for their size to increase. In this way, the formation of ovaries is stimulated.
The shelf life of the Director cucumber variety is quite long. The fruits can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 weeks without fear of damage.
Disadvantages of the variety
- High cost of seeds.
- The yield of the harvest is not even and gradual, but in waves - “sometimes thick, sometimes empty.”
- High demands on proper agricultural technology.
- Prone to thickening due to the large number of shoots.
- More than others it requires warmth.
Objectively, it must be said that these are very relative disadvantages.
Simple approximate calculations. A hybrid seed worth 8 rubles. gives a bush with a potential yield of 10 kg. 50 rubles each, totaling 500 rubles.
Cucumber seeds of weaker varieties cost 1 rub. or your own free one gives a bush with a harvest of 5 kg. 50 rub. in the end 250 rubles.
As a result, on the same areas, for the same time, with the same labor costs, water and fertilizer consumption, you can save 7 rubles. on one seed and lose 250 rubles. on the harvest.
The “explosive” return of the harvest is fraught only with the fact that, for example, for a week the Director will give barely enough harvest for a cup of salad, and then an avalanche of harvest will immediately fall on your head. Then - a recession, and then again a wave of harvest. Moreover, such “non-conveyor” ripening of the crop can be associated not only with the characteristics of the variety, but also with fluctuations in growth conditions from unfavorable to favorable.
Advantages of the variety
- Excellent fruit quality, both in appearance and taste.
- Good keeping quality, possibility of long-term transportation and fresh storage.
- High yield.
- A long period of fruiting, which ends only with the onset of cold weather and a reduction in daylight hours.
- The resistance to many diseases inherent in the breeding of the variety does not require preventive treatment with fungicides.
In details. The Director ends the fruiting period not because its growth period laid down by the varietal genetic mechanism has expired, but because winter is just around the corner, cold and dark. If it grows in heated greenhouses with the right, sufficient lighting, it can grow and bear fruit even longer, up to 6 months, and in ideal conditions 9-11 months.
True, in large greenhouse farms they do not keep one crop of cucumber for so long, and after the peak of the harvest has passed, they change the plantings to younger ones. Because a six-month-old old man produces, of course, less harvest. A single private owner will be happy with it in his greenhouse, but on very expensive square meters of industrial greenhouses this is no longer profitable.
Therefore, in expensive greenhouses they do not squeeze everything out of one planting, but run two rounds during the warm season.
To extend the period of growth and fruiting, you need to carry out simple but specific care techniques.
Diseases and parasites
Resistance to many diseases is genetically inherent in the Director cucumber variety. Only preventive measures should be taken to protect plants from diseases and pest attacks. A description of some cucumber diseases that the Director f1 variety can carry if the rules of agricultural technology and prevention are not followed is given below.
Downy mildew
The disease refers to fungal infections. Downy mildew can appear on cucumbers at any period of growth as a result of an introduced infection. It can be preserved in the soil for up to 7 years, and can easily withstand frosty winters with temperatures down to -20 degrees.
When infected with this disease, the plant stops developing and bearing fruit. Small spots and holes first appear on the leaves, then small yellow spots that quickly increase in size. Next, a gray-black coating appears on the inside of the leaves, and then the foliage dries out completely.
Fruits affected by downy mildew change their color to light and become tasteless. For prevention, spraying of bushes with the biological product Fitosporin is used. Treatment with copper-containing preparations will be effective, but it is not recommended to use them during fruiting.
To treat the disease, you should tear off all affected leaves and treat the bushes with biological products. You can also use traditional methods of combating the disease:
- weekly spraying of cucumber bushes with a solution of soda and soap (2 tablespoons of soda, 1 tablespoon of soap per 5 liters of warm water);
- treating plants with a mixture of milk, iodine and laundry soap. Mix 40 drops of iodine, 30 g of soap with 1 liter of milk. Spray the plants once every 10 days.
Cladosporiosis
If brown spots appear on the stems of the cucumber, and brown ulcers on the fruits, the cucumbers have an unpleasant taste and lose their commercial quality, then the plant is probably infected with cladosporiosis. This disease can appear from improper care, watering with cold water, or a sudden change in air temperature.
To prevent disease, you should always ventilate the greenhouse, water the cucumbers only with warm water and only at the root.
To treat the disease, bushes are treated with biological products and fungicides. After spraying the borage, the greenhouse should be well ventilated, ensuring that the preparations completely evaporate from the leaves.
Root rot
The disease occurs from excess moisture. As a result of the disease, plant roots become thinner, turn brown, and dry out. The borage dies completely due to root rot - fruiting stops and the leaves dry out.
It is almost impossible to cure the disease.
At the initial stage, you can disinfect the roots with a solution of copper sulfate with the addition of ash (2 teaspoons of copper sulfate and 100 grams of ash per 1 liter of water). After disinfection, the roots are sprinkled with soil, and the affected bushes are removed from the site. To prevent disease, it is recommended to monitor the moisture content of cucumber plantings.
Care
Surprisingly, Director was created by Dutch breeders specifically for open ground. In our country, perhaps due to the peculiarities of the climate, they immediately began to grow it in greenhouses, where this new hybrid showed excellent results. And in the open air it grows fully only in the southern regions.
You can achieve success in the open ground both in Central Russia and in the North-West, but for this you need to carefully maneuver the deadlines.
In the open ground
In open nature in the middle zone, the Director will be able to reveal his capabilities during the most favorable period - from the end of May to the end of July, when the daylight hours are the longest and the night temperatures are warmest. To do this, on April 15–25, the seeds are planted in containers with a capacity of at least 0.3 - 0.5 liters and grown on sunny windowsills or in a greenhouse. And only when the temperature outside is at least 22 degrees, and the soil in the garden has warmed up by at least 14 degrees, the threat of frost has passed, and the Director’s seedlings are planted in a permanent place.
On open ground in the middle zone, the Director will feel better lying on the ground. When gartered high, the winds will blow him around, but he doesn’t tolerate this well.
Without a garter up, it requires a lot of space. Between rows at least 2 m, between plants in a row 0.5 meters.
Otherwise, agricultural care techniques are common to all cucumbers.
Indoors
Immediately upon planting, you need to provide the bush with fertile, loose soil. In the Central Black Earth zone, local undepleted black soil with wood ash is sufficient at the rate of 0.5 liters of ash per 10 liters of soil.
If the chernozem is not virgin, from a perennial garden, you can add manure or compost humus at the rate of 3–5 liters per 10 liters of soil.
Landing
The crop can be planted in seedlings or without seedlings, depending on the climate. Seedlings are needed not only by residents of cold regions, but also by those gardeners who strive to get a super-early harvest.
Seed material of hybrids, as a rule, is sold already disinfected. But if in past years the plants in the area were often sick, you can soak the seeds for prevention in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate for several hours. After this, they are treated with a stimulant solution.
1-2 seeds are sown to a depth of 1-2 cm in pots filled with nutrient substrate. It can be purchased at the store or made from peat, ordinary soil, humus and sand. After moistening the crops, they are covered with film and germinated in a warm room at a temperature of +23-27 degrees. Then it is reduced, and the pots are transferred to a sunny place.
You cannot keep seedlings warm above +23, otherwise the sprouts will stretch out and subsequently become frail and weak.
In the phase of 3 full leaves, fertilizing is applied, for example, with Radifarm fertilizer. They are transplanted into the garden bed when the bushes have 4-6 leaves.
For growing without seedlings, the soil is prepared in the fall. They dig it deeply and add a bucket of humus or compost and 15 g of mineral fertilizers - superphosphate, potassium nitrate - to each square meter. In the spring, the soil is dug up again to a shallower depth and disinfected with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. When the soil warms up to +14-15 degrees, sow the seeds. In this case, the 50 by 50 cm pattern is observed. Then the seeds are sprinkled with soil, mulched with peat and covered with a film on top. The film can be removed when shoots appear.
Reviews about the variety
We tried it in the fall by the Director of F1 (Nunhems). Sowed on July 1, August 1 - first harvest, abundantly from August 7. Dark green, tastes good, yield is also good. Again, in different seasons the ripening time, conditions and harvest are different. We didn't grow it in the spring, but liked it in the fall.
User Maria29, Krasnodar region
https://forum.tepli4ka.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&p=15240
There are several people in our company who are amateur gardeners, so we chip in and order seeds in bulk, it turns out much cheaper and there is no mis-sorting. We ordered seeds in a professional package - 1000 pieces, although there were also seeds in a package - 500 pieces (price per package - 2090 rubles). The cost of a large package (1000 pcs.) cost 2931 rubles, it turns out 1 seed is about 3 rubles, if you buy it in a store in a small package, the same seeds will cost at least 8 rubles. per piece So consider how much more profitable it is to order in bulk.
User Foxi1502
https://irecommend.ru/content/samye-pervye-ogurchiki-so-svei-gryadki-vsegda-samye-luchshie
“I’ve been planting cucumbers for F1 Director for several years now and I’m very pleased. Since this variety is shade-tolerant, I plant it in early spring to get the first cucumbers. And a little later I sow other varieties. The seeds are processed, so they do not require soaking. Cotyledon leaves appear on the third day. Absolutely all seeds germinate! Three weeks later, my seedlings already have three leaves, and I plant them in open ground. The plant grows and develops well, and in May my family eats salads from homemade cucumbers.”
Maria, 45 years old
https://agrouchastok.ru/ovoshhi/ogurcy/direktor-f1-opisanie-i-otzyvy.html
Video about Director F1
The F1 director appeared with us relatively recently, and has not yet received such wide recognition as its other Dutch counterparts. But already now many professional and amateur experts who have tested this variety in practice believe that it has great prospects in our open spaces.
- Author: Gennady Chernikov
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