BRINGING THIRD GENERATION DOWNY MILDEW RESISTANT CUCUMBERS TO MARKET

Our overall goal of this proposal is to make cucumber production more sustainable in the context of an evolving major challenge, the oomycete pathogen, cucurbit downy mildew (CDM). Improved downy mildew resistant cucumbers will provide growers with a cucumber crop that is more economical to grow without the expense of fungicides, or for gardeners and organic growers, the total loss of an unprotected crop. Cultivation of diverse resistance sources should further increase the longevity of crop resistance and provide alternatives to cultivars already in production should the pathogen evolve resistance to the narrow set of genetics currently in use. Food security and consumers will benefit from having better access to locally or US grown cucumbers. After substantial investment, and good reception of preceding cultivars, this proposal seeks to efficiently deliver to the marketplace improved, needed cultivars that were developed with the request and guidance from stakeholders. This will be accomplished through a set of objectives that span evaluation, seed production, and marketing.Objective 1 will focus on the evaluation of this new generation of cucurbit downy mildew resistant cucumbers through replicated research station trials, pilot production on grower farms, and genomic analysis to characterize the disease resistance genetics.Objective 2 will create seed resources to support and accelerate adoption by seed companies and future breeding efforts. We will create abundant, healthy foundation seed stocks for company seed production, efforts supporting hybrid seed production, and we will deposit a stock of a rare source of resistance in the National Plant Germplasm System.Objective 3 will support adoption directly by promotion to seed companies, securing PVPs, produce presence in a trend setting urban market and promotion through the Culinary Breeding Network.