Looking for the Best Cucumber Variety

heirloomgal

Garden Addicted
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
3,664
Reaction score
11,788
Points
235
Location
Northern Ontario, Canada
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

Garden Master
Joined
Apr 18, 2014
Messages
3,356
Reaction score
6,451
Points
306
Location
Lower Hudson Valley, New York
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

Garden Addicted
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
3,664
Reaction score
11,788
Points
235
Location
Northern Ontario, Canada
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

Garden Master
Joined
Apr 18, 2014
Messages
3,356
Reaction score
6,451
Points
306
Location
Lower Hudson Valley, New York

Zeedman

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Messages
3,895
Reaction score
11,951
Points
307
Location
East-central Wisconsin

Pulsegleaner

Garden Master
Joined
Apr 18, 2014
Messages
3,356
Reaction score
6,451
Points
306
Location
Lower Hudson Valley, New York
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.
 

flowerbug

Garden Master
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Messages
16,055
Reaction score
24,172
Points
417
Location
mid-Michigan, USoA
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

Garden Addicted
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
3,664
Reaction score
11,788
Points
235
Location
Northern Ontario, Canada
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

Garden Addicted
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
3,664
Reaction score
11,788
Points
235
Location
Northern Ontario, Canada
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.
 

Latest posts

Top