Cucumber

Cucumis sativus L.

The Southeast Asian cucumber was in East-West Seed’s sights from the very beginning of the company. Though heat-loving and popular in the markets of the region already, it was to take a decade of trials before breakthroughs were made. First, the Lanna-5 variety combined downy mildew resistance, longer shelf life, and earliness.

This cultivar dominated the small fruited market overnight in the early 1990s. Another breakthrough came later in 1999, when East-West Seed introduced the Micro-C. With its improvements to taste and shape, it is hugely popular to this day in supermarkets, loved by consumers as ‘finger-food’.

Cucumber instructional video for smallholder farmers