List of Cucumber Bush or Vine Varieties

Vine Varieties

• Slicing cucumbers generally develop on standard plants whose vines may grow to 5 or 6 feet or more. Depending upon variety and growth rate, long slicers are ready in 48 to 60 days. Names to look for include "Marketmore 76," which produces long even-sized fruit with dark skins and white spines. They grow to about 9 inches and produce fewer large yellow fruit at the end of the season due to their specialized dark color gene. "Marketmore 80" is a shorter improved hybrid of "Marketmore 76" that has no bitter flavor despite its size. "Straight Eight" cucumbers have good flavor and can be used for slicing or pickling. Plants produce large numbers of deep green fruit that grow to 9 inches.

Pickling Varieties

• While pickling cucumbers are small, many grow on standard-length vines that lend themselves well to trellising, as the fruit don't weigh the vines down. Picklers are generally ready a little sooner than slicing and burpless types. "National Pickling" produces dark green 5 to 7-inch-long fruit with black spines. "Regal," resistant to most cucumber diseases, produces long slim fruit that is used to make whole pickles, chips and spears. "Calypso," "Northern Pickling," "Wautoma," and "Alibi" are among other varieties of pickling cucumbers to look for.

Bush Varieties

• The size of the plant or length of the vines do not determine the size of the cucumbers, as both slicing and pickling varieties grow on compact bush plants as well as on vining types. Slicing varieties include "Bush Champion," "Bush Crop," "Pot Luck," "Dasher II," "Bush Slicer," "Spacemaster," "Bush Whopper" and "Daytona." Pickling cucumbers include "Eureka," "Jackson Classic," "Cross-Country" and "Bushy," an early-maturing Russian variety.

Considerations

• The procedure for planting all cucumbers is the same, with the exception being the amount of space allowed between plants. This space can be minimized even when growing vining varieties by providing some type of support for them to climb on. Growing cucumber vines vertically takes up about half the space necessary to allow them to trail along the ground. It keeps fruit off the ground and makes it easier to pick. Frost-tender annuals, they do best in soil that is rich in organic matter such as aged manure or compost, and in full sunlight. Keep the soil moist until germination, and then water regularly each week to a depth of 1 inch and more often during dry spells. You can successfully grow bush cucumbers in containers as long as you remember that the soil in pots dries out more quickly.