INDUCED RESISTANCE OF CUCUMBER CUCUMIS SATIVUS L. TO WHITEFLY BEMISIA TABACI BY SILICON

A field experiment was conducted for the cultivation of cucumber crop var Miran, Super Faris F1, and Tower F1 in the fields of the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences - University of Baghdad - Iraq during the agricultural season 2020. This crop was treated with Silicon foliar application to induce the resistance of the cucumber plant against the infection of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. The study result based on the insect population density showed that the concentration of 200 ppm achieved the highest reduction in the numbers of eggs and nymphs for the three cultivars. The average number of eggs/ plant was 8.11, 10.47, 14.95 for the cultivars Meiraan, Tower F1, and Super Faris F1 while the average number of eggs in control was 42.82, 55.59, 49.22 respectively, and the average number of nymphs/plant was 3.72, 5.45, 6.02 nymph.plant-1 for the cultivars Meiraan, Tower F1, Super Faris F1, respectively. while the average number of nymphs in control was 27.68, 29.35, 22.69 nymph.plant(-1), respectively.