Favorite Cucumbers

[MissS]

I am wanting to know what is your favorite cucumbers to grow. I don't like the bitter ones at all. I don't need high production either. I love snacking on the pickle types and enjoy the larger ones in salads. Any good suggestions on what to grow this year?

[MikeInCypress]

Sweet Success is my go to large burpless type and Diva is great for the smaller ones. Poona Khera with its brown skin never gets bitter and is a good all purpose cuke.

MikeInCypress

[Shule]

Regular cucumbers have a harder time in our garden, but out of those, I like Beit Alpha and Monika, so far.

I like to grow West India burr gherkins and Metki Dark Green Serpent melons instead.

[wildcat62]

We like a type called Sweeter Yet.

[Rockandrollin]

Another vote for Sweet Success. These can get really large and bitterness is not a issue. I've been growing these in concrete remesh wire cages to be able to go vertical and save space. Either colerobbie or bigvanvader on the other site recommended these and I've been happy with them.

[bower]

I am no expert in cukes, but I liked Diva. Very sweet, smaller cuke, but they took a long while to produce in my conditions. Some years ago I had seeds of Passandra F1 which is distributed by UK companies - we sometimes get Fothersgill or Sutton seeds here. Very expensive at about $1 per seed, but they were early and steady producers. I even grew them indoors one year. Perfectly sweet and delicious cukes. The Diva was good and also, not expensive at all, lots of seeds per pack.

[Lonejack]

A third vote for Sweet Success if you want a slicer. I really like Vertina for a pickling cucumber after trying 6 or 8 others. It is parthenocarpic and bred for growing in a greenhouse but I grow it outside. Unfortunately Johnny's stopped offering it 2 years ago. I bought a 250 seed pack a few years back and only plant about a dozen a year so I should be good for awhile unless the seed stops germinating. I did see a couple sellers offering it on Amazon when I just checked.

[MissS]

I am going to look at all of these. Thanks so much for your advice.
Seems like the pickle type is not very popular. Keep em coming.

[Shule]

You all might be interested in Liso Calcutta, too. It's a Cucumis anguria gherkin, but it's not nearly as spiky as the West India burr gherkins. It gets even bigger fruits, too, so I hear. I haven't tried it, yet, but I love West India burr gherkins, which are also Cucumis anguria.

[ddsack]

I don't care for bitter peel on cucumbers either, here are some that do well for me. I grow both for eating and fermenting pickles. Some of these F1's may be meant for greenhouse growers, but I start them early, some seedling go to pots, others are planted later in the ground.

The earliest is Picolino F1 a little slicer that sets cukes before it even has much for vines.




Iznik F1 is similar, but not as early or short. Harmonie F1 is a fuzzy spined little thing, prolific. I have fermented these upon occasion, but the taste and texture is probably better for eating fresh.



I grew Sweet Success last season, liked it but didn't get any pictures, it was later than the shortie hybrids. Last season I grew these -


I really like the Greek cuke that I got from SandHill Preservation, very spiny, non-bitter, excellent eating.
The last few years I have also grown Salt and Pepper, which is a small white pickling type cuke. It has tiny black spines on it that rub off when you wash it. It is also a very good non-bitter salad cuke. I only have pictures of it in a ferment crock. Will grow it again next season.



As soon as it stays warm enough, I move my potted cucumbers outside along the inside of my garden fence. Others seedlings get planted later when the ground warms up. Sometimes I seed in the ground too.

[GoDawgs]

Over the past fourteen years I've tried Homemade Pickles, Eureka, Double Yield, Spacemaster, Wautoma, Muncher, Dar, County Fair, Long Green Improved, Marketmore, Super Bush Slicer, Poinsett, Southern Delight and National Pickling. For about five years in that stretch, Homemade Pickles did pretty good and then it didn't do so well. The one that has consistently done well for me is National Pickling. We use it for pickling and fresh eating. And at the feed 'n weed, 75 cents worth will plant half the county.

I ran across something the other day that said too much fertilizer will contribute to bitterness in cucumbers. Can't remember where I read that but will post the link if I ever find it again. I also know that here the cukes, whatever variety they are, will get bitter in the heat of deep summer.

[Cole_Robbie]

Yes, Sweet Success is great. I like Diva, too, smaller but tasty. It is cruel irony to be a seed saver with a taste for the parthenocarpic.

[bower]

Cruel irony, indeed!

[PlainJane]

Diva is good. I also like Pepinex.

[kath]

Burpfree and Corinto have done the best for us here. Cuke beetles can reach plague proportions in some years and we have a lot of wet mornings and evenings so they have to have some tolerance for the diseases that are inevitable since I don't spray the plants. Usually they make it until about mid August.

[Labradors]

I absolutely LOVED Baby Fingers F1 and found that the Beit Alpha (OP) offered by High Mowing Seeds were not as tasty. However, the cuke beetles were so bad a couple of years ago that they destroyed my crop (and it wasn't due to disease, but massive chewing!) I grew them under a Reemay tunnel last year, but that was a real PITA tucking them back in each time, so I pretty much gave up harvesting them. I love to have them climb as it is so easy to pick them but, short of building a Reemay greenhouse, I'm not sure what I will do in the future.

[bower]

Yes, Sweet Success is great. I like Diva, too, smaller but tasty. It is cruel irony to be a seed saver with a taste for the parthenocarpic.

Coincidentally I happened on some information about this - apparently to get seeds from a parthenocarpic cuke you have only to keep the male flowers (don't remove) and bring on the bees. I noticed my Diva had a lot of male flowers before it started to produce any cukes, but like others in the family (zucchini comes to mind) there may be environmental triggers for male vs female flowering. Passandra growing in the house under lights had zero male flowers. The F1's wouldn't be true to type, anyway... But the popular OP's like Sweet Success should be fairly easy to get both m and f and let them form seeds...

[Cole_Robbie]

Yes, Sweet Success is great. I like Diva, too, smaller but tasty. It is cruel irony to be a seed saver with a taste for the parthenocarpic.

Coincidentally I happened on some information about this - apparently to get seeds from a parthenocarpic cuke you have only to keep the male flowers (don't remove) and bring on the bees. I noticed my Diva had a lot of male flowers before it started to produce any cukes, but like others in the family (zucchini comes to mind) there may be environmental triggers for male vs female flowering. Passandra growing in the house under lights had zero male flowers. The F1's wouldn't be true to type, anyway... But the popular OP's like Sweet Success should be fairly easy to get both m and f and let them form seeds...

I had to look up just what a male flower was. I never did pluck any from my Sweet Success, and I had a bee hive nearby. I guess it must not have made male flowers. What looked like seeds in the cukes just dried to hollow husks when I tried to save them.

[bower]

I wonder if there are ways to get them to produce male flowers. Cold might be one. There must be a way or there'd be no one selling seeds of Sweet Success.

[Tormahto]

Still looking for the ultimate sweet cuke. Viridis F1 has been the best of the few I've tried. I'll see what F2 seed produces. I also like Armenian melon/cukes.