Vegetable production in Dagestan is the one of the smallscale, where elementary techniques are used, therefore the vegetable commodity output does not reach a third from total volume produced. With appearance of new irrigation technologies the perspective occurred to raise the productivity of vegetable growing. The use of the drop irrigation improved the vegetable production and yield as well as carrot production. The influence of sowing terms and plant density on features in vegetation phases, photosynthesis activity and water consumption in drip irrigation was studied in carrot ‘Chantenay 2461’ grown on the meadowchestnut soils medium loamy soils of plain areas in Dagestan. Spring sowing time and summer sowing time with plant density of 0.6; 0.8 and 1.0 million plants per hectare have been studied in accordance with the two-factor experiment. In the course of experiment, it has been shown that not the plant density but sowing terms have essentially influenced upon interphase vegetation period in carrot. It has been also revealed that sowing terms have influenced upon photosynthetic activity, increasing the leaf area by 15.1%, while photosynthesis activety and dry matter content have increased by 7.5% and 4.2% respectively. The maximal parameters of photosynthetic activity were obtained when sowing in the second ten-day period of March with density of 0.8 million plants per hectare, and a yield of 42.2 t/ha. To produce such yield, there is a requirement of irrigation rate should be 2600-2700 m3/ha, on average with 18 watering at rates between 87-165 m3 /ha. Calculations of energy and economic efficiency have shown that when sown in the 2nd decade of March density of 0.8 million plants per hectare gave maximum energy efficiency 6.14, whereas the level of profitability of production expenses was equal to 73.5%.

The current state of seed market of vegetable and gourds in Russian Federation in the frame of national food safety program is given in the article. Russia as a country with well-developed  seed production  in the last century has now  ceded  its  position,  and according  to  last experts’ association estimations the 80%  of  required volume of seeds of vegetables and gourds, amounting from 8 to 12 thousand per year is imported.  Not  less than 15 thousands  of  hectares  are  needed  to  be  necessary  for demand  of  Russian seed  production  sector,  however, presently only 2 thousands of hectares is a total certified land used for seed production.  Moreover, the seed production sector of some countries that export seeds rises becoming a profitable branch of agriculture, and providing local employment. The lack of competitiveness in Russia causes that many foreign companies increase annually purchasing prices for seeds and their production services. Therefore, now the total volume of seeds imported  in  Russian Federation has nearly been  twice less for the last years than in 2012, but in currency earnings in exporting countries the insignificant changes can be seen, where deviation is only 19-25%  from  average annual value, that means 1675 thousand dollars per year. Besides, for the Russian budget in the ruble currency the total cost of imported seeds has become 2.5 times more expensive since 2012, but the increase of combined cost of  marketable  vegetables  has been  over  2.7  billion  of rubles.  The  main  idea  that  the  seed  production  is  a process requiring the participation of breeders, seed producers and seed companies is main factor to succeed in recovering seed production sector. Exception of any participant or ignoring his interests may destroy all process. For instance, there is a chronic problem of plagiarism and royalty nonpayment causes the break between the business and breeder, affecting on the final result. It is evident  that  the development  of  National Associations for Professional Unions of breeders, seed growers and businessmen with active participation of the governments in building regulatory and legal base, rules and mechanisms of relationships for all partners in seed market enables to develop the effective and stable national system of seed production.

Recently, the particularities in carrot trait variation, namely root color and shape; carotene content; duration of vegetative period; resistance to diseases and pests have been established. But such traits as yield capacity, root marketability, root quality, long-storability as well as their genetic  determination haven’t  been  well  studied. Consequently, thorough study of  genetically diverse accessions and the search for phenotypically well-identified traits are very actual tasks. The ecological and geographical study of carrot enables to reveal polymorphisms among cultivars, in order to use it in the breeding program. The study of collection accessions of local and foreign origin in contrasted conditions varying in temperature and water regimes revealed the significant variation of main biological and economically valuable traits, including root yield and quality. The root yield was substantially higher in Pushkin (Leningrad oblast) than in Vologda oblast. Comparatively stable yield and quality were shown in local cultivars:   ‘Nanatskay  Krasnaya’,  ‘Princess’   and ‘Gribovskaya’. Very important requirement for highly marketable products is the cultivar resistance to disease and pests. There are no completely resistant genotypes to carrot psylla among accessions studied. Carrot accessions bearing resistance to the pest and also showing high productivity and quality were ‘Losinoostrovskaya 13’ (Russia), ‘Gavrilovskaya’ (Ukraine), ‘Feonia’ (Denmark), ‘New Model’ (UK), ‘Betina’ (the Netherlands) that can be used for breeding program. ‘Krasnaya Dlinnaya’ (Russia) and ‘Chantenay а Coeur Rouge’ (France) were comparatively  resistant to powdery mildew.

The high antioxidant activity in tomato fruits is caused not only by sufficient content of vitamin C and polyphenols but also the carotenoids and the fat soluble antioxidants. Lycopene and beta-carotene are the main fat-soluble antioxidants, the consumption of which influences positively on human’s health. It is known that tomato fruits are the source of lycopene for human diet, providing up to 85% of the total lycopene in food. The breeding program for tomato cultivars with high content of carotenoids is a very important task for breeders. In our study the content of betacarotene and lycopene was assessed in 18 tomato accessions with red, pink, yellow and orange fruits obtained in Solanaceae Breeding Laboratory at VNIISSOK. All plants were grown in experimental open field in Odintsovo region, Moscow oblast, VNIISSOK. It was revealed that the typical concentration ratio of lycopene to beta-carotene for pink and red fruits was 1.5 to 10.25, but for yellow and orange fruits was 0 to 0.63. Highest ratio was observed in red fruits in line 230-16. The highest lycopene content was found in red fruits of tree type tomato lines 198-16 and 86F1 (11.5 and 8.7 g/100g. respectively). The highest content of betacarotene was in yellow fruits of line 53-16 F1 (4.1 mg/100g) and orange fruits of line 184-16 (6.2 mg/100g). All studied accessions with orange fruits had the higher content of beta-carotene than in standard and highest content of lycopene in this group of accessions. Thus, these fruits had the high nutritional value. The balanced content of lycopene and beta-carotene and low acidity in pink and yellow-orange tomato fruits makes these cultivars the most valuable for children’s diet and people with problems of digestive system.

The description information on new high yield and large fruit tomato  hybrids  F1 ‘Altadena’  and  ‘Bolena’  for  prolonged rotation in glasshouses is given. Technology for their cultivation is presented in the article.

Brussels sprout (Brassica oleracea convar oleracea L. var. gemmifera DC) is a highly valuable cole vegetable crop, which is grown widespread in Europe and cultivated in gardens in Russia. The breeding program for this crop has been carried out at VNIISSOK. The biological features, useful properties of Brussels sprout along with agrotechnical instructions for cultivation were given in the article. The modern trends in breeding program for the crop were shown. The description of cultivar ‘Hercules’ and heterotic hybrid F1 ‘Sozvezdie’ bred at VNIISSOK was given.

Silicon is biologically important element that is necessary not only for plant, but for all living organisms. Silicon was discovered in all plant organs, where its much quantity accumulates in plan cell walls of leaf and root, giving them a mechanical durability and resistance against abiotic and biotic stresses. Earlier, it was supposed that the silicon was absorbed by plants in form of monosilicic acid and then being deposited as phytoliths or accumulated in epidermal plant cells. Moreover the silicon is not only a basic structural element, but it controls many biological and chemical processes. Water soluble monosilicic acid enters into reaction with metals, organic compounds, showing properties of weak acid. Gels of silicic acid can be a catalyst and a matrix, on which the inner cellular synthesis of organic compounds occurs. In the present study the method to determinate three forms of silicon in plants, such as free, easily hydrolyzed and tightly combined is given. Thus, the part of silicon, 0.5-0.7% was observed in protein preparation of leaves of amaranth. Protein was divided into two fractions, albumins and globulins by precipitation with ammonium sulfate. After that each protein fraction was divided into two by Sephadex, where one of which come out in inner volume of gel, and second one come out in outer volume of gel (G-75). The gel distribution into fractions was of the same type characteristics. The tightly combined silicon was absent in high molecular fraction of albumins and globulins. Most of the silicon was discovered in high molecular fraction of globulins, where 80% of the element was represented by an easily hydrolyzed form. The silicon combined with proteins apparently is in a form of orthosilicic ester of hydroxy-amino acids; however it cannot be excluded that there is the formation of SiN bonds with free amino groups. Biophile silicon is a part of plant silicon (organogenic), which is basically in the form of orthosilicic esters bonded with proteins, phospholipids and pectins that are the plant components being assimilated primarily by human’s organism. In our opinion, this fraction of silicon as a microelement should be taken into account in evaluation of nutritional, forage and pharmaceutical values of plant raw material.

The squash is one of  the most  ancient plants, bearing numerous qualities. The squash gave high yield and is unpretentious plant, the fruit of which is long-stored and can be used as boiled, stewed, baked, fried product, and be added to bread, mush and pudding, and be prepared as puree, jam, candied fruit and other meals. Owing to useful characteristics the squash is a valuable source or raw  material for  food  canning  industry,  for  health-care and functional foodstuff production. Its best cultivar accessions contain to 30% of dry matter, to 12% of sugars  and  to  36%  of  carotene.  The  species  of  squash includes 4 subspecies and 20 varieties. One accession that came from Spain in 1937 served as an initial breeding accession for many other table cultivars for long time. For 80 years of national breeding program the many cultivars for  table  use have been released. There are the classic cultivars, such as ‘Mramornaya’, ‘Stolovaya Zimnaya’,  Gribovskaya Zimnaya’,  ‘Donskaya  Sladkaya’, ‘Michurinskaya’ that are selected or developed from first Spanish accession. This richness and originality of cultivar squash accessions should be carefully preserved. There are the new generation cultivars, such as ‘Kroshka’, ‘Malishka’,    ‘Rossiyanka’,    ‘Konfetka’,    ‘Moskvichka’, ‘Vnuchka’ and many others, which are short-tendrils and suitable for  modern  mechanized cultivation  technology. Moreover the development of new cultivars, bearing resistance to biotic and abiotic stress is the main goal of nearest breeding program.

In  2014-2016  the  assessment of  kidney bean  cultivars bred at Omsk State Agrarian University on yield capacity, quality, and biochemical  chemical compounds  in green beans, such as proteins, zinc, iodine, iron and sucrose was carried  out  in  the  south  forest-steppe  of  Western Siberia. The technological  parameters of  green  beans: the  shape  of  cross-section  area; pulpiness,  fibrous  or non-fibrous,  and bean thickness were estimated. Threeyear study showed that all tested cultivars bred at Omsk State  Agrarian  University  surpassed  control  cultivar  in yield capacity,  chemical composition  and technological parameters of green beans. The cultivar ‘Pamiyaty Rizhovoy’ gave a highest yield: 563.4 g/m2  in 2014; 622.8 g/m2 in 2015; and 620.4 g/m2  in 2016. It is worth noticing that this cultivar is also distinguished by contents of micro and macroelements: 21.20-28.68  mg/kg  of zinc; 0.012-0.018 mg/kg of iodine; and 1.8-3.2 mg/kg of iron. In the course of the study, it was noticed the dependence of  yield  capacity  on  hydrothermal  coefficient  (HC). In 2014-2015 the yield capacity was a lowest when the moisturization was insufficient at 0.7 HC. With increase of HC the yield was higher. With sufficient moisturization at 1.0 HC the highest yield of green beans was observed in 2016.  The estimation  of  kidney  bean  cultivars  bred  at Omsk State  Agrarian University showed  that  all beans were  distinguished  by  high  quality  parameters  in  the phase  of  technical  maturity,  such  as  pulpiness,  nonfibrous, thickness 0.5 to  1.0 cm, and green and yellow colors.  The  highest  protein  content  comparing  to  the control  cultivar  ‘Zolushka’  was  detected  in  ‘Marusya’ 23.60%  in  2014,  20.94%  in  2015;  and  ‘Zoloto  Sibiry’ 19.79%  in  2016.  The  observed  results  confirmed  that contents  change of  proteins,  sucrose, and  even micro and macroelements depended on the climatic conditions. In the hot and dry summer the protein content, depending on cultivar increased 18.31% to 23.60%, in 2014, and 17.81 to 20.94% in 2015. The same occurred  with zinc 19.63  to  28.68  mg/kg  in  2014,  and  20.14  to  27.54  to 2015;  and  iron  2.0  to  3.2  mg/kg  in  2014  and  1.6-1.9 mg/kg in 2015.

The analysis of the national seed market state really showed the high dependence of Russian food security on imported seeds. The government means for supporting the national seed production program undertaken in 2015 by Ministry of Agriculture of RF were very effective and took action as showed the data from ‘Roselkhozcentre’. Thus, the total land area used for seed production in vegetables, melons and gourds was increased by 48% that amounted to 2104.3 ha in 2016, and that was more than in 2015. Moreover, the vegetable and melon seed producers and breeders are worried about the facts of falsification and low quality. The main reason of occurrence of such seeds that are not meeting the variety requirements in the market is an insufficient legislative system and its lack of correspondence to the current seed production, conditions and up-to-date requirements. It is necessary to take urgent measures to revise the current state of legislative system in national seed production program.