THRISSUR: When Keralites all over the world are looking for good looking cucumber fruits to adorn their Vishukkani kit, a farmer in Thrissur is brimming with joy and pride amidst the abundance of diversity in fruits in his cucumber field.
Vivekanandan of Chemanthitta near Kechery has been growing cucumber for Vishu like many other farmers. His produces have a speciality, though. While cucumbers harvested in other fields are identical in shape, size, colour and appearance, the fruits from Vivekanandan’s field are different in all these aspects as well as the taste and genre.
Vivekanandan has been cultivating Cucumber for more than two decades, chiefly using organic manures.
The fruits obtained from his field are plain without stripes, some long, some spherical and some sweetish. A majority of the fruits appear white in early stages and turn golden yellow when ripe. The diversity of produce has drawn the attention of even Agricultural department officials, he said.
On being alerted by Tysamma Thomas, Assistant Director of Agriculture, Kerala Agricultural University, scientists from Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Thrissur, visited his plot two years ago and conducted studies.
According to them, the apparent reason for diversity seems cross pollination of different types of cucumber cultivated by Vivekanandan over the years.
“The matter has to be subjected to detailed study and we are planning a scheme for it,” says Dr Jalaja S Menon, scientist at KVK. We would closely watch the diverse nature of produces from this field in future as well,” she added. Pending the study and its results, the quality, diversity and peculiarity of cucumber fruits from this field continue to attract people.
