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Andrey_BY · December 4, 2007

Yes, Frank, I know about Mikhail Vasilievich Rytov (1846-1920) and his famous indoor cucumber.
Actually he had been a professor in our Belarusian Agricultural Academy in the town Gorky (near Russia) for so many years (1879-1920) and bred a lot of different vegetable varieties (cukes were his speciality). He was among the first Russian biologists who dealt with scientific vegetable gardening. Recently I managed to buy an old book written by him (published in 1915 - just before our Revolution). There are a lot of interesting info about how our grand-parents grew vegetables and also there is a photo of "Komnatnyi ogurets Rytova" (Rytov's Home-Grown cucumber) + "Zimniy Ogurets Rytova" (Rytov's Winter cucumber). Would be glad to scan its picture, but have no a scanner at home...
The first was well-known in Russian Empire and in some European countries in the first half of 1900s. It had a extremely short vines and elongated cukes (a bit shorter than greenhouse long cukes today). It was rather shadow tolerant and gave a reliable yield. Very famous Klinskiy (Russian heirloom) cucumber variety was the original sourse for it.
Unfortunately we lost seeds of the original Komnatnyi ogurets Rytova. And now you can't find it here anymore.
But probably should search it in Gatersleben or other old seedbanks across the Europe... And I gonna do my best to try to find its seeds here in former Soviet Union. I've found some links to people who used to grow it (or believe to grow it)

December 4, 2007	#2
Andrey_BY Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Minsk, Belarus, Eastern Europe (Zone 4a) Posts: 2,278	Yes, Frank, I know about Mikhail Vasilievich Rytov (1846-1920) and his famous indoor cucumber. Actually he had been a professor in our Belarusian Agricultural Academy in the town Gorky (near Russia) for so many years (1879-1920) and bred a lot of different vegetable varieties (cukes were his speciality). He was among the first Russian biologists who dealt with scientific vegetable gardening. Recently I managed to buy an old book written by him (published in 1915 - just before our Revolution). There are a lot of interesting info about how our grand-parents grew vegetables and also there is a photo of "Komnatnyi ogurets Rytova" (Rytov's Home-Grown cucumber) + "Zimniy Ogurets Rytova" (Rytov's Winter cucumber). Would be glad to scan its picture, but have no a scanner at home... The first was well-known in Russian Empire and in some European countries in the first half of 1900s. It had a extremely short vines and elongated cukes (a bit shorter than greenhouse long cukes today). It was rather shadow tolerant and gave a reliable yield. Very famous Klinskiy (Russian heirloom) cucumber variety was the original sourse for it. Unfortunately we lost seeds of the original Komnatnyi ogurets Rytova. And now you can't find it here anymore. But probably should search it in Gatersleben or other old seedbanks across the Europe... And I gonna do my best to try to find its seeds here in former Soviet Union. I've found some links to people who used to grow it (or believe to grow it) __________________ 1 kg=2.2 lb , 1 m=39,37 in , 1 oz=28.35 g , 1 ft=30.48 cm , 1 lb= 0,4536 kg , 1 in=2.54 cm , 1 l = 0.26 gallon , 0 C=32 F Andrey a.k.a. TOMATODOR Last edited by Andrey_BY; December 4, 2007 at 07:25 AM.