Cucumber variety for a taste of spring

Probably my two favorite garden crops are tomatoes and cucumbers. I can eat either of them right in the garden, with or without salt. I do need to peel the hide off both of them if I can. If I had to choose which I like better, I'd have to say tomatoes by just a slight margin. I do like cucumbers. After tomatoes and cucumbers I like green beans and onions and new potatoes, but tomatoes and cucumbers are what I long for come spring.

Cucumbers come in all sizes, shapes and colors. Some are long and some short and some are round. They can be green or yellow or kind of an orange, as well as a number of other colors. Some have seeds, and there are a few that don't have seeds. Some are burpless, while others seem to produce a gas that just causes us to burp.

When I was growing up, Dad would make a small mound and then plant five or six seeds on top of this mound. He would cover them up with about a 1/2 inch of dirt. This is probably the favorite way of planting cucumbers. Once they came up and started to grow, he would come and thin them down to one or two. I prefer to start my cucumbers in my shop in a mix of potting soil and seed starter. I usually plant one or two seeds in a 2x2-inch starting tray. Once the cucumber comes up, water it with a mix of 8-52-9 or something similar. Once the cucumber is established and growing, one can transplant it into the garden. I usually wait until the cucumber plant is about to lay down before I plant it. When you transplant the little cucumber, water it with 8-52-9. From then on, use a balance fertilizer such as 12-12-12.

I always train my cucumbers to grow up a fence. I usually use a 5-foot-tall cattle panel that is 16 feet long. I use steel T-posts to stabilize the panel. You can get these cattle panels at Buchheit, TSC or Orscheln for about $20 apiece. I secure the wire to the T-post with baler string, which costs about $15 to $20 for thousands of feet.

Leroy, my son's father-in-law, likes Straight Eight. It grows about 8 or 9 inches long and about 1 to 1 1/2 inches across. My favorite eating cucumber is Diva. It is a small cucumber growing to about 7 inches long by just over an inch in diameter. It has a super taste, but usually it doesn't produce a lot of cucumbers. For canning, my hands-down favorite is H-19 Little Leaf. This little plant puts on tons of little cucumbers that will be from about 3 to 5 inches long and from about 1/2 inch to about 1 inch in diameter. These make some of the best crispy dill pickles.

Diva simply doesn't put on enough cucumbers to satisfy me, so I also plant several long European or Asian-type cucumbers. Tasty Jade, Suyo Long or Striped Armenian all will produce gobs of cucumbers. Tyria is another great long cucumber, but the seeds are rather expensive. They will run about a buck a seed if you have to try them.

Cucumbers are just like tomatoes when it comes to disease resistance. Each cucumber will have a disease package that will add to the plant's health, or it will lack a disease package, which will cause the plant to succumb to diseases. For instance, Diva has a high resistance to S (Scab). Diva also has an Intermediate Resistance to CVYV (Cucumber Vein Yellow Virus) and DM (Downy Mildew) and PM (Powdery Mildew). Little Leaf H-19 has a great disease package.

Some cucumbers claim they are burpless. Usually burpless cucumbers have a thinner skin and tend to be seedless. I find that if one picks almost any cucumber when they are small, they will tend to be burpless. Most of the long Asian or European cucumbers will be burpless. I grow Diva and Tasty Jade to eat, personally. Suyo Long also is a good eating long cucumber.

A cucumber has two ends, with one being the stem end. Many times this stem end will be bitter, so I trim this end off to about where the seeds start or where the cucumber has a core. Many will eat this stem end, but I don't. My dog won't eat the stem end, either. Years ago, Rosemary Varguson, Marge's sister who passed away years ago, said to trim off this end down to where the seeds start. She used to teach home ec in Basset, Nebraska. Good lady.

I add a flavored salt to most of the cucumbers I eat. I really like Lawry's Seasoned Salt. I keep a shaker of Lawry's on my four wheeler and in my pickup as well as by my easy chair. On almost any given day my dog and I will eat three or four or five 12- to 14-inch cucumbers. We usually pick them when they are about 10 inches long and just under an inch in diameter. Good!

Happy gardening!

Until next time.