How many cucumber plants do I need for puttin' up pickles?

[Holachicka]

Hi all! I'm going to put up pickles this year , and was wondering how many plants I should have? This will be a first for me... Here's my set-up:
I will have the plants in wine barrel halves and supported with trellises. 3-4 plants per barrel. My family and I go through SEVERAL store bought pickle jars in a year (probably around 10+) but with home made we'll probably go through more, plus a jar or two to give away. I'd rather have too much than not enough, but space will be limited this year. I'd greatly appreciate any feedback on my setup, as well as opinions on how many plants I'll need. Thanks!

Sarah

 

[lesa]

First of all, Welcome! Welcome!! This is my first year making pickles- so not too much help from me. However, I made lots of pickle relish last year. I had around 6-8 plants. It was a terrible gardening year, too much rain- and still I made more relish than we will ever eat!!! I have 12 plants this year and really hope to make all the cukes into pickles! Great tips on here (if you do a search). One idea I want to try- put a grape leaf into each jar- keeps them crispy. Good luck and let us know how you do!

 

[bid]

It depends a bit on what kind of pickles you want to make and how small of a batch you are willing to process. I make mostly bread n butter and pickle relish with a few jars of dills thrown in for good measure. I probably had 18-25 plants last year and that was plenty, ok too much. I would say 12 to 16 plants depending on variety, is ample plenty. The cukes will keep around a week pretty well in the fridge, although 3 or 4 days is better for dills. Good luck on your pickles and...

 

[journey11]

I had about 16 cukes planted last year and ended up canning 21 qts of dill slices, 12 qts of spears and 7 pints of gherkins. I could have kept going.... I am still finishing up the bread and butters from the year before. It seems though that toward the end of the season, although you will still be getting cukes, I think the later ones tend to not be as suitable for canning. I don't know if it's August heat or what, but they seem to get pithy. That's when I went to canning gherkins (it takes a lot of baby cukes to do) because they were better picked small and it helped control the flood of cukes I was getting and had too many to use.

That said, I still believe it is better to plant a few extra than you think you will need. Sometimes vine borers will kill a few or powdery mildew will affect them. So you want a few for "backup". You can always give the extra cukes away, or if you can extra, give those away. When I get down to time to can more, I start giving away the extras from the prior year. If you go through maybe one jar a month, 6-8 plants would be plenty for you.

Oh, and !

 

[GrowsLotsaPeppers]

With pickles, you don't have to do them every year.

We used to do a huge batch every other year, when the kids were small. They grew up on hot garlic dills.

Now, about every third year suffices. You need to have enough to make it worth while to do the whole process. And it is a big process.

 

[Holachicka]

Thanks for all the warm welcomes! I like the idea of doing them every other year... I'll probably do 4 barrels then, that's about 16 plants. I'll only be making Dills, and hot garlic dills is the recipe I've been drooling over! Anyone do container gardening with cucumbers before?

 

[lupinfarm]

I've got 6 bush pickling cucumbers in a raised bed, they're not very big yet but they will be! I'm hoping we get a small harvest of pickles I love pickles haha

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome! Glad you are here!

I don't do container gardening so I can't help you there. Four barrels sounds pretty good for your first year. It will give you a good idea of how many you will need in coming years and if they do well, you should get a bunch. I've found with some things, and cucumbers fit this category, that if you do well, you get a lot. If they don't do well, you could plant twice as much and they still will not do well.

If you are planning on pickles, I'd suggest planting a pickling cucumber instead of a slicer. You won't get the volume you would with the big slicers, but they make better, crunchier pickles. And you can still eat them fresh if you want to.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Last year was a terrible year for pickles. I planted 15 plants and didn't get more then 25 qts. About 3 years ago I got so feed up with pickling I went out and pulled all my cucumber and threw them over the fence. Then the last 2 years I have struggle to get a decent batch.