Does anyone know what kind of cucumbers are used for making the sweet pickles you buy by the jar in the grocery store? The small ones.
Cucumbers for Sweet Pickles
NATIONAL PICKLING (Cucumis sativus) 55 days - This very productive variety has dark green skin with black spines. Is small, thick and blunt ended when young. Makes great pickles! Pick when young for 'Gergkin' type pickles. 35 to40 days.
~* Robin
Thanks Nature Walker, I just got some National Pickling seeds from Big Lots for only 5 cents. Unfortunately, they only had one pack left.
One pack will give you plenty of cukes...the vines set large numbers of fruits. Pick them when they are about as long as your little finger.....they are quite tasty bigger, but you want the little tiny pickles. I've grown National Picklers for years...and use them in salads and any fresh use. I prefer the taste of pickling cukes to slicing types...there IS a difference. Picklers have a bitter skin that helps keep them crisp and slicers do not...I still prefer to peel my picklers and use them fresh.
So, when you run across one that you've missed and it's grown bigger than you want for pickles...just peel it and enjoy! Or, slice them into rounds and make hamburger dills or Bread & Butter Pickles.
thanks for the info Melody! Do you plant 3 per hill like with the larger cucumbers?
ok so what is the secret to crisp pickles? I've used NP cukes and several others too. I've tried bottled water, I've tried tap water. I've tried cutting the ends off, leaving the ends on. I've tried canning them within an hour of picking and I've tried canning them the next day. I've tried recipe after recipe and the only pickles I can get to not be soft are my dilly beans. Any suggestions?
In the canning forum there is a post on how to cold pack in order to bottle crisp pickles. You might want to check there. I am not the expert at all, but that forum has a lot of experts with all kinds of info on canning.
cool, thanx
Kanita, these are full size plants and vines...you are just harvesting the cukes at a smaller stage. Plant 3 per hill and stand back...they will spread exactly like you are used to.
And comb them carefully when picking for the tiny pickles...it's very easy to miss the little ones.
Thanks Melody! Is it best to stake the cucumber or put them on a trellis?
Lots of folks swear by a trellis or some sort of climbing structure. I find you get more cukes if you let them sprawl. Seems that there are more male flowers at the base of the plant than at the ends of the vines. You need the bees to visit the male flowers and pollinate the female ones...if the vines are twined around on the ground together, the chances are greater for successful pollination. If space is at a premium, then by all means, go up with them....I've got a traditional veggie garden with unlimited space...I just let them crawl.
Melody, you are sooo lucky. My dream is to have a garden with unlimited space, but unfortunately I have very little, and its "borrowed" space. My friends bought a house wit a huge raised bed in back, and since they hate gardening, they let me have it to do whatever I want.