Abstract Cucumber is the second most frequently consumed vegetable after tomatoes, 33 % are eating Cucumber every day. The purpose of this work is to examine if there is any product development of Cucumber in Sweden, and if so in what way. A questionnaire was used with a number of questions regarding quality, origin, supply and the way Cucumbers were used, and the person was also asked to choose between the normal large Cucumber and the miniCucumbers. This was answered by totally 100 persons in two different stores, ICA Maxi in Löddeköpinge and a discount store with a large supply of fruit and vegetables and where a large share of customers are immigrants, Özen All Frukt in Malmö. The results from questionnaire show that in some of the issues the results vary a lot between the two stores.

Powdery mildew is a serious problem in both field and greenhouse Cucumber production and can cause serious infection and radically reduced yields. Today, powdery mildew is the main disease in greenhouse produced Cucumber. Disease control should preferably be both efficient and environmentally friendly, which is not easy to achieve at all times. Alternatives to chemical control of powdery mildews are biological control, physical control, non-fungicide control and cultivation of resistant or tolerant varieties. Biological control can be described as the suppression of damaging activities inflicted of a harmful organism by one or more other organisms, which are called antagonists or natural enemies. In Sweden, there are currently no registered biological control products available to control Cucumber powdery mildew. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of two biological control products in order to evaluate their ability to prevent or reduce powdery mildew infection to an acceptable level in greenhouse produced Cucumber. In the experiments, different application regimes were also studied.

In this study, the efficiency of a newly launched predatory mite, Amblydromalus limonicus, has been examined for its potential to use as a biological control agent in Cucumber production. A. limonicus can be used for biological control of two thrips species, Frankliniella occidentalis and Thrips tabaci. Field trials were conducted in greenhouses of two conventional Cucumber growers in Scania, the southern part of Sweden. The basic control agent used against thrips was the predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii. In selected areas, additional A.

Certain microbial residents from composts are known to possess the ability to suppress soilborne plant pathogens. Trichoderma spp. and Gliocladium spp. are commonly found in composts and are perhaps the most wellknown hyperparasites of fungal pathogens, which may also be naturally present in compost. Trials have many times proven them to be effective against plant diseases caused by soilborne pathogens such as Pythium spp., Phytophthora spp.

Russian comfrey, Symphytum x uplandicum, was tested as a plant nutrient source in a trial with tomatoes. Comfrey liquid was produced by Stiftelsen Holma i Höör. Tomato plants of the cultivar Aromata planted in a medium of soil:peat (1:1) enriched with organic nutrients and lime, were fed with comfrey liquid plus Biofer, in three different concentrations. Two different concentrations of BioRika were used as comparison, along with an unfertilized control group. In the comfrey treatment I a total amont of 1g N, 0,23 g P, 0,84 g K, was given to the tomatoes.