A Definitive Guide to Cucumbers
White Wonders yield many, are delicious and great for pickles or slicing. W. Atlee Burpee introduced this heirloom in 1893 after they received it from a customer in New York.
Boston Picklings date back to 1880 and yield smooth green fruit. These are excellent for pickles and are very crisp and of high quality. Boston Picklings were very popular at the turn of the century.
Parisian Picklings are great for making tiny sweet pickles and very rare.
West India Burr Gherkins is not a true cucumber but used much like it. These have very beautiful long vines and hundreds of small tasty fruit. These produce the best yield of any cucumber variety and are becoming rare. They do great in hot, humid weather and were introduced to the USA in 1793 from Jamaica where they were used pickled or boiled by the Colonies in Jamaica.
Richmond Green Apples are unique heirlooms from Australia. The fruit are the size of a lemon but are of a beautiful light green color. These are very mild, sweet, and juicy, and are hard to find.
Delikatesse are pale green unique fruits with warts. These have a superb taste and are excellent for slicing or pickling. Rare variety from Germany.
Telegraph Improved are very crisp, tender and mild, with superb flavor. High yielding vines are great for greenhouse production and also good cultured indoors. Introduced in 1897, this is an excellent English heirloom.
Japanese Long are very crisp and mild and easy to digest. This is a great Japanese variety for home use or farmers’ markets. Japanese Longs are very productive and delicious.
Chinese Yellows are a beautiful yellow-orange cucumber from mainland China that have green fruit when young. Fruit is very crisp, mild and delicious, and great for slicing or for pickles.
Early Fortune are also good for slicing or pickling. Green fruit have crisp white flesh.
Snow’s Fancy Pickling have short slender dark green fruit and make a great pickle.
A & C Pickling have uniform deep green fruit. This variety is good for salads or for dill pickles.
Thai Green are popular in Thailand, are green in color, and are perfect for hot humid climates.
Boothby’s Blonde is an heirloom variety from Livermore, Maine. It produces cream colored, mild and sweet, thin skinned
cukes.
Hmong Red have fruits that are white to pale green that turn golden-orange as they ripen. This variety is very productive and tasty and stays mild even when large. Hmong Reds are heirlooms which were collected from a Hmong immigrant. Hmongs live on the borders of Thailand, China, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam and have a rich, ancient history.
Uzbekski are a fascinating heirloom from the Mideast country of Uzbekistan. These big, fat cucumbers turn brown when ripe and are very crisp even at larger sizes. This variety is a good keeper and will store well into the fall.
Sikkim Cucumbers have fat, large fruit that has a unique rusty red color which are good eaten cooked or raw. In Asia, cucumbers are stir-fried and are quite tasty. Sikkims are grown in the Himalayas of Sikkim and Nepal.
Mexican Sour Gherkins are incredible, small cucumber-like fruit that are shaped like baby watermelons. These are great added to salads or can be pickled. Their taste is cucumber-like with a touch of lemon. The vines have tiny leaves and flowers and are perfect for a cottage garden.
Japanese Climbing have dark green fruit great for salads or pickled young for pickles. These are great climbers and perfect for growing on fences and trellises.
Poona Kheeras have very delicious flesh, crisp, juicy, and sweet and mild. The fruit shaped like a potato, with skin turning brown as they ripen. This variety is disease-resistant and very hardy. Vines produce early and the yield is very heavy
