Favorite Cucumbers

[guruofgardens]

Sweet Success for taste and smaller size
Tasty Green for same as above, plus is a great producer with lots to share
Homemade Pickles for pickling spears with fewer hard seeds as the season progresses

My brother now wants me to make 'dill salad cubes' for him as supposedly they're more popular in the South (?).
I'll probably use the Homemade Pickles cukes as their seed cavities seem to be smaller with more cuke for the making.

Anyone have a different recipe other than dill pickles for making the salad cubes? I'm planning on just peeling, gutting the seed cavity, and cutting into 1/2" cubes (I guess). Good experiment.

[daylilydude]

Homemade Pickles , but I don't grow a bunch of different kinds as I grow mostly in self watering containers, so mostly bush types for me.

[worth1]

Has anyone mentioned Boston picking cucumbers.
An old heirloom that is hard to beat.

[Gthegardener]

I really enjoyed the Richmond green apple cucumber from Baker Creek this past year. It was tasty, crunchy, good flavor, but definitely was differently shaped. It was almost like an oval or a square. Really interesting cucumber. I love the northeastern pickling cucumber for my pickles (extremely productive and preserves well) and I liked the smaller Picolino F1 cucumber.

[agee]

Dragon's Egg Cucumber from Baker Creek, https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetab ... agon-s-egg .

[pepperhead212]

I only grow County Fair, because of the disease resistance - bacterial wilt. I've tried a couple of others that have the same resistance, but they did not produce well.

[brownrexx]

Another vote for CountyFair. I have tried growing cukes many times and the cucumber beetles always infect them with Bacterial Wilt before I get more than a few fruits. County Fair makes good pickles and is not bitter either.

[kath]

I only grow County Fair, because of the disease resistance - bacterial wilt. I've tried a couple of others that have the same resistance, but they did not produce well.

Do you how or if County Fair and County Fair Improved are different? A few years ago, I read on another forum that County Fair was impossible to find anymore and so it seemed when I googled for seeds. Now both seem to be readily available, so I was wondering if someone "brought it back" in the form of the the improved version and some sellers are listing it under the old name, or if there really are 2 varieties.

If anyone has grown both, is there one that is better for eating fresh, or for resisting wilt longer than the other?

[brownrexx]

I never noticed this but I just looked at last year's seed packet and it is from Sustainable Seed Co. and the name of the seed is County Fair Imp.

I grew seeds from this packet last year and got a really nice harvest out of about 4 plants. I grow them on a trellis and a pack of seeds lasts me 2-3 years.

[MissS]

I only grow County Fair, because of the disease resistance - bacterial wilt. I've tried a couple of others that have the same resistance, but they did not produce well.

Do you how or if County Fair and County Fair Improved are different? A few years ago, I read on another forum that County Fair was impossible to find anymore and so it seemed when I googled for seeds. Now both seem to be readily available, so I was wondering if someone "brought it back" in the form of the the improved version and some sellers are listing it under the old name, or if there really are 2 varieties.

If anyone has grown both, is there one that is better for eating fresh, or for resisting wilt longer than the other?

This is a really good question.

[kath]

I never noticed this but I just looked at last year's seed packet and it is from Sustainable Seed Co. and the name of the seed is County Fair Imp.

I grew seeds from this packet last year and got a really nice harvest out of about 4 plants. I grow them on a trellis and a pack of seeds lasts me 2-3 years.

Thanks for your reply, brownrexx. Burpfree and Corinto F1 are my current faves for taste, crazy production and for lasting longest despite the cuke beetles and the havoc they wreak. Last year by the time the plants had virtually no leaves left, the fruits weren't edible anyway because of the severe beetle damage, so I'm not even sure that growing County Fair will extend my harvest any further into late summer/fall. I only grow one plant of each and give cukes away because they'll produce 8-15 every day. Two neighbors make pickles every year from the donations! Still, it's hard for me to resist opportunities to trial things, given the slightest incentive.

[SusieQ]

Diva - smooth skinned
Tasty Jade - long Asian slicer
National Pickling - rather crunchy
General Lee - larger slicer and crazy productive for me in the garden
Socrates - large slicer that can take a bit of cooler temps. We always set this one out first.

ps Tasty Green is similar to Tasty Jade, but they don't seem to fill out all the way to the ends and have to be cut off/wasted.

[pepperhead212]

I only grow County Fair, because of the disease resistance - bacterial wilt. I've tried a couple of others that have the same resistance, but they did not produce well.

Do you how or if County Fair and County Fair Improved are different? A few years ago, I read on another forum that County Fair was impossible to find anymore and so it seemed when I googled for seeds. Now both seem to be readily available, so I was wondering if someone "brought it back" in the form of the the improved version and some sellers are listing it under the old name, or if there really are 2 varieties.

If anyone has grown both, is there one that is better for eating fresh, or for resisting wilt longer than the other?

A few years ago, I got the Improved version, and when I grew it, it didn't seem to produce as well as the old, so the next year, I grew both, and I really didn't see much, if any, difference. I hadn't bought any for a while - I got a lot of seeds in that pack (I think it is 2015) of the old variety, but I wanted to try the new ones.

[kath]

Thanks, for sharing your experience, pepperhead! That's interesting.

[guruofgardens]

We’re planning on Sweet Success and Tasty Green for salads and Homemade Pickles for dill spear pickles. I really liked the Homemade Pickles cucumber as the seeds were underdeveloped for most of the pickles we made last year.

[Whwoz]

Picked our first Sikkim cucumber today and the kids went silly for it. Normally we get the long green "continental" types sold here or a couple of white skinned varieties which I grow normally, but they are out the window now.

If I was making a lot of relish, I would plan on growing what is sold here as Large White Russian, which grows upto 4 lb and will store for months when mature

[jmsieglaff]

I haven't tried a ton of varieties, but have spent lots of time digging into options. And have settled on two varieties that always perform well for me and are delicious, yet offer different flavors from each other.

- Sweeter Yet Hybrid (my source is Jung Seed)
- Suyo Long Cucumber (my source is Baker Creek)

We use ours for fresh eating, we wrap in saran wrap and it keeps them crisp and tasty.

[jmsieglaff]

Did you decide to grow any cukes this year Patti?

[Clkeiper]

what is wrong that no one seems to grow straight eight anymore.. it is a very good and reliable cuke, I have grown sweet success and sweeter yet, but I would say I do like sweet success better. be prepared for how prolific they are if you have a row of 20...i have picked bushels at a time.

[MissS]

Did you decide to grow any cukes this year Patti?

Now there is the question. I am going to grow cukes this year. My Community Garden Plot is 30 x 30. I am putting up a fence/trellis for cukes 15 ft long. This ought to be enough for one 5' tall little ole lady and a whole bunch of neighbors too. The people here have been so very helpful with such great advice, it sure makes it hard for a girl to make a choice.

I will be growing because I have found seeds for and because of the great advise:

County Fair
National Pickling
Boston Pickling
Homemade Pickles
Sweet Success

I wonder if I will have enough.... LOL