JANUARY 2019 GERMINATION.CA 21 characteristics. Copes notes that vari- eties with improved flavour usually come with a trade-off for growers, like lower yields and more frequent harvests, so while Origami has been a hit with many consumers, the can- taloupe market won’t be revolution- ized overnight. Still, as researchers learn more about cucurbit variety development through groups like the CucCAP, the future looks promising. “For growers who are willing to grow a product like Origami, I think there’s a lot of opportunity. But, there’s still going to be, in my mind, a large percentage of growers that really just want the simplicity of growing a Harper melon. The achiev- able goal is to combine high flavour with good yields and harvest man- agement.” The quest for new varieties of cucurbits with sought-after character- istics also extends to other vegetables like cucumbers. “In Israel we have the Beit Alpha cucumber, which is a very smooth skim, not warty, not bumpy, fruit. That’s definitely got to be my favourite. They’re very expensive in America. What I usually buy in the U.S. is the English Hot House type, the really long greenhouse cucumber. That’s the closest I can get to what I want from home,” says Ben Mansfeld, PhD student in Grumet’s lab at Minnesota State. He hails from Israel and is researching the developmental NEWCUCURBITSRESOURCESONLINE Some new websites have been launched that offer some important resources to people working in cucurbits. cucurbit.info — The Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative (CGC), established in 1977, provides services for researchers interested in the genetics and breeding of species of the Cucurbitaceae crop family. cuccap.org — The objective of the Cucurbit Coordinated Agricultural Project (CucCAP) is to leverage applied genomics to increase disease resistance in cucurbit crops. This site provides extensive information regarding cucurbit disease detection and control in both English and Spanish, and is linked to the new cucurbit genomics website, cucurbitgenomics.org cucurbitgenomics.org — The CucCAP project has allowed for development of a fully revamped cucurbit genomics website providing a central portal for the cucurbit research and breeding community including up-to-date genome sequence, gene expression data, genetic maps and genomic analysis tools for cucurbit crops. trait of age-related resistance (ARR) to Phytophthora capsici in cucumber. “We are starting to get more inter- est in the United States in other types of cucumbers, and I think that will drive more and more of the seed companies and breeders to develop more lines that can be grown here.”