What to look for when buying cucumber seeds and how to choose a decent variety or hybrid of cucumber so that it is ideal for pickling, fresh first summer salad, crispy and sweet?
The number of cucumber varieties is growing by leaps and bounds – every year more and more new ones appear on the market. Go figure out which one to buy? But in fact, it is not difficult if you follow the scheme. So, what should you pay attention to when choosing a variety?
Step 1. Appointment of cucumbers: how will we use them?
All varieties of cucumbers can be divided into 4 groups:
1. Salad cucumbers. Designed for fresh food: salads and sandwiches. Such fruits are not suitable for conservation. Firstly, they are often large (although there are also small-fruited varieties). Secondly, paradoxically, they have a rough skin – salt does not penetrate through it well and they do not salt out, which makes them tasteless. In addition, when salted, they become soft, voids form in them. But on the other hand, the skin is smooth, with a minimum number of tubercles and soft light spikes. Their flesh is crispy, sweet and fragrant.
Such varieties are also good because they do not turn yellow on the lashes for a long time.
2. Pickled cucumbers. They are usually used for salting in a cold way – in barrels or jars. Their skin is thick but thin. There are many tubercles and thorns on the fruits, and the thorns are certainly black or brown. Salt penetrates well through the tubercles and spikes and the cucumbers are salted evenly. In addition, pickled cucumbers are tight, they have a high content of sugars and pectins – that is why they turn out crispy and with a special, unique taste. In shape, such cucumbers are short and not thick. The seeds are small.
The main disadvantage of such varieties is that the fruits quickly turn yellow, so they need to be harvested every 2-3 days. But on the other hand, they are stored for a relatively long time in the refrigerator or cellar, so they can be processed as they accumulate.
3. Canned cucumbers. They are usually marinated in jars. Their skin is denser than that of pickles, but less dense than that of lettuce. Since vinegar is present in the marinade, it is important that the greens are gradually saturated with brine and do not turn into “porridge”. At the same time, the skin must be “hygroscopic”.
4. Universal cucumbers. As the name suggests, they can be used in salads as well as preserves.
How to find out which group a given cucumber belongs to? This information is always indicated on the package of seeds in the description of the variety. Or it can be found on the website of the State Register of Breeding Achievements.
Step 2 Location: where will we grow them?
There may be 2 options here:
1. Cucumbers in greenhouses. In this case, it is necessary to choose parthenocarpic varieties and hybrids – their fruits are tied without pollination. This is important because there are no bees in the greenhouse.
2. Cucumbers in the open field. Here you can grow both bee-pollinated cucumbers and parthenocarpic ones. But it is better to plant both of them, because each group has its own problems.
Bee pollinated varieties and hybrids can leave you without a crop in cloudy and rainy weather – bees do not fly.
Bad weather is not a hindrance to parthenocarpics – cucumbers are formed in any case. But they also have issues to consider.
Firstly, they are very sensitive to light – they do not like both excess and lack of sun. And if the weather is unstable, clear days are often replaced by cloudy ones, dry spots immediately appear on the leaves. In extreme heat, the ovaries begin to crumble, and those few fruits that managed to survive grow ribbed.
Secondly, they are affected by viruses – in extreme heat, white spots appear on the leaves, increase in size, infect the whole lashes and the plants die.
Thirdly, they have an extended ripening of the crop – each next green is formed when the previous one reaches half its length. This is convenient when they are plucked into a salad. But it is very difficult to pick up cucumbers for conservation in the winter with such a feature of fruiting.
Step 3. Ripening time: how long do we want to harvest?
All varieties and hybrids of cucumbers are conditionally divided into 3 groups according to the ripening time:
1. Early – with a ripening period of up to 45 days (from the moment of germination to harvest). They are the earliest ripening, but they have two problems: they are affected by diseases and quickly give up the entire crop.
2. Mid-season – 45–50 days. They allow you to get a crop in the middle of summer.
3. Late – more than 50 days. The good news is that cucumbers can be harvested even in August.
What cucumbers and how many to plant?
To extend the collection of cucumbers for the whole summer, it is better to plant all three groups. Approximately 20% – early to feast on them at the beginning of summer. About 70% of the varieties are medium ripening, they will become the main ones for your blanks. And about 10% can be farmed out to late varieties in order to enjoy cucumbers in August. No more, because at the end of the season the nights are already cold, and the day is not hot, so they will not ripen so actively.
Step 4. Color: do we want classic varieties or hybrids, or would exotics be good too?
We are used to the fact that cucumbers are green, but recently varieties that are very unusual in color have appeared. And if you like to grow something original, give them some space too.
Modern chefs prepare amazingly delicious dishes from brown cucumbers. Moreover, they are not used fresh, but … boiled! And such delicacies are obtained!
