Looking for the Best Cucumber Variety

[heirloomgal]

Counting my blessings with how the cucumber selecting turned out in the end! I discovered that the gherkin you speak so highly of @Zeedman - Liso Calcutta - is actually available here so I snapped that one up. While on the same seed site I found an, apparently, very old American heirloom 'cucumber' called Painted Serpent so I got that one too. My Kaiser Alexander brown netted cucumber arrived along with the others, and it turns out that I think I can grow all of them without worry about cross pollination - so I can save all the seeds too! Just got lucky with picking varieties I wanted to try!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Counting my blessings with how the cucumber selecting turned out in the end! I discovered that the gherkin you speak so highly of @Zeedman - Liso Calcutta - is actually available here so I snapped that one up. While on the same seed site I found an, apparently, very old American heirloom 'cucumber' called Painted Serpent so I got that one too. My Kaiser Alexander brown netted cucumber arrived along with the others, and it turns out that I think I can grow all of them without worry about cross pollination - so I can save all the seeds too! Just got lucky with picking varieties I wanted to try!

I THINK Painted Serpent is actually an Armenian cucumber, which means that, taxonomically, it's actually a melon. That MIGHT mean you are right about them not crossing (since all three are different species.)

 

[heirloomgal]

I THINK Painted Serpent is actually an Armenian cucumber, which means that, taxonomically, it's actually a melon. That MIGHT mean you are right about them not crossing (since all three are different species.)

I hope it's easier to grow than the light lime green ones, I never had luck with those...

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I hope it's easier to grow than the light lime green ones, I never had luck with those...

If it isn't you might try looking among the carosellos, the ball shaped cucumber melons of Italy. This shop seems to specialize in them (https://cucumbershop.com/product-category/cucumber_melons_c-melo/)

 

[Zeedman]

If it isn't you might try looking among the carosellos, the ball shaped cucumber melons of Italy. This shop seems to specialize in them (https://cucumbershop.com/product-category/cucumber_melons_c-melo/)

Now that is something you don't see every day... a really interesting new take on an old vegetable.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Now that is something you don't see every day... a really interesting new take on an old vegetable.

I'm not sure how "new" it is. Cucumber melons seem to have been around for ages in the places where they are grown. They may be sort of new to US, but they are far from a new idea.

 

[baymule]

I grow Burpee Burpless or Straight Eight. I make sliced spicy sweet pickles and both of those suit my purpose. I make so many pickles that I usually grow cucumbers every other year. Wouldn’t you know it, this year of no garden and I need to replenish my pickles! Lol

 

[flowerbug]

I grow Burpee Burpless or Straight Eight. I make sliced spicy sweet pickles and both of those suit my purpose. I make so many pickles that I usually grow cucumbers every other year. Wouldn’t you know it, this year of no garden and I need to replenish my pickles! Lol

just a few plants can do it. good luck!

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm not sure how "new" it is. Cucumber melons seem to have been around for ages in the places where they are grown. They may be sort of new to US, but they are far from a new idea.

Part of what caught my attention with this Painted Serpent was in the description they quote William W. Weaver as saying 'it's among the oldest heirloom varieties grown in America and one of the now most neglected.' But I didn't realise it fell under the 'melon' cucumber category, though I did sort of impulse buy it and didn't do any research first. Well, I hope I can get it to grow. Germinating those seeds has not gone well for me in the past, but seed companies really keep those packets around for a long time here, so maybe these will be fresher seeing as they are not coming off a rack at a hardware store.

 

[heirloomgal]

I grow Burpee Burpless or Straight Eight. I make sliced spicy sweet pickles and both of those suit my purpose. I make so many pickles that I usually grow cucumbers every other year. Wouldn’t you know it, this year of no garden and I need to replenish my pickles! Lol

My mum used to make sweet pickles too, been so long since I had those. They were yummy.