*5.2.4 Soil solarization*

*Cucumber Economic Values and Its Cultivation and Breeding*

production [21, 46, 50].

*5.2.1 Crop rotation*

benefits [59, 60].

*5.2.2 Primary tillage*

*5.2.3 Stale seedbed*

most environmentally friendly weed control method next to preventive measures. Cultural techniques help the cucumber farmers to reduce the cost of weed management. These techniques can affect weed-crop interaction and inter-relationship particularly during the critical period of weed control. These techniques provides favorable and conducive environment for the growth of cucumber and give the crop a competitive advantage over infesting weed species. Cultural weed control methods are easy and cost–effective in cucumber production. Crop rotation, primary tillage, soil solarization, high plant population and manipulation of sowing dates and row spacing are cultural techniques that can easily control weeds in cucumber

Crop rotation enhances cucumber productivity by improving weed control and soil productivity. Continuous cultivation and tillage systems have negative interaction with each other and results in a shift in weed species composition with consequence difficulty in weed management [58]. A shift from cucumber to other crops of different life cycle, physiology and morphology serves as an important means of preventive weed control when cucumber is grown over time in the same field [42]. This practice has potential to reduce weed density and biomass, particularly when a competitive crop is rotated and an effective direct weed control tillage system is applied [5, 41]. On the other hand, continues cropping increases the risk of resistant weeds as a result of the application of similar cultural practices and herbicides of same chemistry for longer periods [21]. Broad-leaf weeds which are difficult to control in cucumber and other vegetables can be controlled readily in cereal crops. Crop rotation is particularly important in cucumber production because of its disease control benefit and weed control flexibility [59]. Cucumber-tomato, cucumber-pepper and cucumber-eggplants, rotation in farmers' fields showed that the rotation of cucumber with other vegetable crops is agronomically practicable, sustainable, and an eco-friendly technique for better weed control and economic

Primary tillage is an integral part of cucumber production system that enhances field preparation for planting operation. The tillage system used directly affect soil structure, plant available moisture and intensity of weed problem. Soil inversion during tillage is considered to be very beneficial for weed control [61]. The implement used and the depth of the tillage operation determines the impact of primary tillage in cucumber farming. The use of moldboard plough is an effective way to reduce weed density during the early growth stages of the cucumber crop [61, 62]. Weed densities and biomass are usually higher in zero or minimum tillage systems than in conventional tillage systems that involves the use mold plough [10, 61–63]. It was reported that cucumbers planted into no tillage rye had greater weed size compared to conventional tillage [61]. Reduced tillage was also reported to encourage increased perennial weed species in weed population in

The use of stale seedbed is another cultural practice for suppressing weeds in cucumber. A stale seedbed is defined as a seedbed prepared several days, weeks, or month prior to planting or transplanting a crop [64]. In this method, resurgent

cucumber fields compared with conventional tillage [61, 62].

**116**

Soil solarization is another non-chemical weed control technique in cucumber production. This technique involves hydrothermal disinfection of moist soil by transparent polyethylene sheets during the hot summers. These sheets entrap the sunlight and increase the temperature of upper layers of the soil by 8–12 °C compared with the non-mulch soil. The elevated temperature kills some of the seeds and breaks the dormancy of others. While the solar scorching kills the newly emerged weed seedlings [67]. Soil solarization is a simple, non-hazardous method that avoids the use of any toxic materials, does not contaminate the site and therefore suited for organic cucumber farming. The effectiveness of this method of weed control has been reported in cucumber crop [68, 69]. Soil solarization proved to be an excellent method for complete control of parasitic weed specie such as Egyptian broomrape (*Orobanche aegyptiaca*) and other weed species such as *Sorghum virgatum, Chenopodium album, and Purtulaca oleracea* infestation in cucumber [68–70].
