It’s finally time to get planting those cucumbers, says Chilliwack gardening guru
Finally, it looks as if this weekend is the beginning of a warming trend which will allow us to set out some of our heat-loving vegetables, like cucumbers. With so many cucumber varieties available today for our home gardens and patios, it’s worth looking at all your options.
The most prized are the seedless varieties, often called burpless cucumbers. The old-fashioned, often greenhouse-grown types, known as long English cucumbers, have been replaced by a myriad of Japanese varieties which are widely adaptable to home gardens. Most of them produce long, straight, dark green fruits that have a wonderful, refreshing flavour. They range in length from eight inches (20cm) to over a foot (30cm). Some of the most recognizable names are Burpless Supreme, Tasty Green and Sweet Success.
One of the older English varieties, called Telegraph, is still available and is not only burpless and very flavourful, but can also grow to 18 inches (45cm) long. There is a shorter, more compact variety, called Perseus, which grows only about 5-6 inches (12-15cm). It has all the great attributes of the burpless varieties but is a little more manageable on the dinner table.
There are now a few miniature burpless types which grow very compactly. Mini Me cukes grow only 3-3.5 inches (8-9cm), so it’s an excellent cucumber for growing in a container. Quick Snack is even more petite, growing only 1.5-2 inches (4-6cm) long, making it an ideal bite-size cucumber. Both are highly productive and delicious.
Traditional slicing cucumbers have been around for quite some time, and they are still out there. Straight Eight and Marketmore are older varieties prized for their flavour. However, during very hot summers, they need to be kept evenly moist to prevent a touch of bitterness.
Pickling cucumbers have always been a favourite, particularly during preserving time in August. With today’s smaller space gardens, more compact growing varieties have become popular for both container and garden growing. Bush Pickle, Pick-a-Bushel and Homemade Pickles are three great varieties. GherKing is also a terrific, new, bitter-free variety for fresh eating and pickles.
If you are restricted to just container growing, Patio Snacker and Quick Snack are tasty candidates. There are also a number of novelty cucumbers, like Lemon, a round, flavourful, yellow variety; Babylon, a fabulous Middle Eastern burpless variety; and Mexican Sour Gherkin, a miniature (1-1.5 inch) bite-sized variety that looks similar to a tiny watermelon.
In so many ways, cucumbers are a huge part of our summer dining. When the weather is nice and warm, they will produce fruits anywhere from 45 to 60 days. Once the weather warms up and stays warm, it’s time to plant cucumbers.