Our Votes For Top Cuke Varieties

Out of about thirty cuke varieties we tried this year, we have five favorites which have performed well here in Kentucky, and which are exceptional producers with excellent crunch and flavor. They are Sensation, Grandma's Pickling, Boston Pickling, Rinsk Druv (Swedish, and our overall best-tasting top producer) and Armenian (my personal favorite due to it's uniqueness, being veritably skinless with ridges, and with and excellent sweet mild flavor with lot's of crunch- it doesn't look like any other cuke I have ever seen!)

We are just getting ready for our melon review. That'll be ready in another couple of weeks.

Does anyone else have any overall favorites from their gardens this year they'd like to brag about?

We planted THUNDER for a slicing cucumber. Great producer & very nice looking. We sold hundreds of them this summer. People keep coming back for them, so that always tells us something.
Bernie

my best cucumber is a small slicer with exelent taste heavy producer and you just have to let it grow you dont have to cut it.we have 150 plants and we pick about 150-200 kilos a week.I also grow a cucumber from jordania just for seeds this year but this kind shall be better,tastier and moore prolific.

Roger Dahlstrom

Hi Roger! I almost came looking for you!

Honestly...glad to see you around again!

Due to a terrible spring that was wet and cold for much too long,I just went and bought a couple of packs of Straight 8's.They're dependable,good and there's no harm done if I don't get any seeds. I had several great varieties to choose from this spring,but didn't want to risk the seeds.

Personally, if I could only grow one cuke, it would be the Snow's Fancy Pickling. Despite the name, it's a great salad cuke as well as a pickler. Snow's Fancy was developed out of the old Chicago Pickling cuke.

It's similar to Straight 8, but slightly longer and thicker. And, to us, anyway, a bit tastier.

This year I grew a variety from Thailand that a fellow in Missouri had collected from a small village there. Frankly, I was underwhelmed. Productivity was low. And, being a very old variety, the seed cavity was particularly large and the seeds big.

Very good picker is H-19 Little Leaf from JSS. Produces great & is bitter free so no trouble with striped cucumber beetles! Make the best dill pickles; pick them small so you can eat whole. Add a Thai Hot Dragon pepper to each jar for a really great pickle!
Bernie

hi Melody and other friends

I have not been around latelely because we have had a lot to do.Every week we pick 150 kg of this cucumber slice them and put them into jars and sell them we also pick about 100-200 kg beans and we also have herbs and ofcourse chillies.Melody the atarodo is great. I grew snows fancy pickling this year but I thought it was a little white one you know it was 2 kinds of cukes a qoite big one 4 inch or longer green and a small nearly white wich is snows?

Roger Dahlstrom

Roger,

Snow's Fancy is a large, green cucumber. Typically it grows six to eight inches long, and about 2inches thick, with a dark green skin. Looks more like a slicer than a pickler.

Didn't know you were growing Atarodo. We're talking about the same pepper, right? A small, red habanero with little or no heat? That whole group is kind of fun.

Yes Brook thats my atarodo very prolific red and quite small with less heat.I am very confused about snows I got it in a swap a couple of years ago and it was a blend (it shouldnt be)of cukes but none is looking like yours.I have one very small and white about 2 inch and one quite big with a kind of two coloured green with lightgreen stripes and an other kind, lightgeen.what kind of group did you ment, habaneros? if you grow seeds from snows it would be nice to make a swap for it.

Roger Dahlstrom

>what kind of group did you ment, habaneros? <

Not habaneros per se, but the ones with no heat. There are at least eight varieties of them. In fact, if you got the seed from Melody, I'm the one she got it from.

The real expert on these is Jeff Nekola, who collected many of them in the Carribean and Nigeria.

As per the snows, sounds like you definately got seed that was crossed. Many people don't realize how easily cukes cross pollinate.

I have some pure seed for the Snows, which I'll be growing out again next year. I can send you some now (we'd have to do a germination test, as it's a few years old), or you can wait until next year when I'll have fresh seed.

Hi there, Roger! Turtlewoman and i have missed you. And wasn't it you that sent us the Rinsk Druv? I know we got them from Sweden, and it seemed they were from you.

Your gardens sound wonderful! You must be the all-time pickling champions in your area with all the cukes you process.

Turtlewoman and I think that the white cuke you mentioned is probably the White Wonder.

Brook,I would be very interested to try to grow snows next year if it is possible and those chillies sounds very interesting.

Pete,yes it was me who sent rhensk druv to you I am glad that it perform so well for you.No its not white wonder it looks like an egg in form, size.I also grow a great cuke called asie gurka,its a white pickler quite big if you let it and a little flat on one side its great to pickle with sweet pepper,nice colour and taste.

Roger

Roger, I'll send some seed out to you today. I'll put in quite a bit, so you can do a germination test.

All I ever grow is either Long Green or Straight 8.

Is there anything that produces over a longer period of time than these two?? I always have trouble with the vines dying too darn quickly.

Owen

This message was edited Sunday, Sep 22nd 5:14 PM

Countrygardens....I've been looking for Little Leaf. However, H-19 Little Leaf sounds like a hybrid, or is that the stock number at Johnny's?

If you come across a Little Leaf non-hybrid wish you (or anyone else) would holler!
Thanks.

Roger, very impressive. No wonder you've haven't been around, very busy!!

Am a little leery about heirloom cukes.....I tried 4 different heirloom cantaloupes this summer and they were the most tasteless melons I have ever tried to eat, plus very few on a vine. Gonna stick with delicious hybrids from now on:)

oblambert,you should try my syrian cuke I dont think you can find a better cuke and its an heirloom and the taste has something to do about how you grow it too.the taste comes a lot from what weather it is under the growing season,fertilizer,watering,if you have a kind you have to cut or not,in what stage of mature the fruit is when you pick it and eat it.I think and hope I got so much seed so I can offer my cuke to everyone who wants it.dont give up heirlooms just find some better kind.we use to give a little fertilizer once or twice a week and watering about three times a week and when we watering we gives a lot

Roger

Roger

Thanks anyway, Roger, but think I tried Armenian cuke once. It got about 18 in. long and was hollow inside and tasted awful.

Roger,

Although we have favorites from this year's experiment, we are interested in your Jordanian and Syrian cukes. As many as you grow, you are probably the Swedish expert on the subject. So your word is good enough for us.

Thanks again for the rinsk druv- it's wonderful!

Why heirlooms? Someone is bringing some heirloom tomatoes to market. They are the poorest excuse for a tomato. All cracked, some look all puckered up. Don't know where you would cut to get a slice for a sandwich. About the Little Leaf, H-19 is part of the name. I am not sure if it is a hybred or an improved variety. Produces like crazy!
Bernie

country gardens,the taste of some heirlooms are a lot better than most hybrids because hybr are often made for distribution and long transports.

Oblambert,why did you tried the most xtreme cucumber on earth? if you trust me I can send you the most delicius cucumber you ever taste and this from jordania says to be the best my syrian are very delicius quite small very green,fast growing,very prolific,climb self on a sheepnet,(about 4-6 inch when pick,you can let it grow a little bigger if you want to slice it but then it will be bigger seeds) you dont have to cut it and you can eat is like candy (tasty but not candysweet)

sourdoughpete,those kinds of cukes is in a class for them self rhensk druv is a good cuke but not as those two I havent tried them outside our growinghouse but I have heard that they will be good even outside.

I have also a white cuke called white asiegurka wich is a good outside cuke.its a white cuke wich could be bitter sometimes if it dont grow fast but if you put it in jars with winegar it will be good it looks very nice if you blend with sweet pepper or perhaps hot

Roger

Roger

This is the first year that I grew "Diva" Hybrid Cucumbers. The reason I wanted to try them was that the catalog said that they were definitely not bitter tasting. So, I had to find out for myself. They looked like the average cucumber that you could find growing in a vegetable garden. Their size was similar to that of a pickling cuke. "Diva's" had a thin outer skin, small seeds and a non-bitter flavor. They were correct! I will definitely grow them again next year :~)

We grew 'American Slicing'. Nice large cucumbers, great tast and absolutely no problems, not even pests. I have done just about everything with them as far as canning goes and I've got tons still growing. I can't give them away anymore! LOL!