Questions, you have questions…
Do you need to grow special pickling cucumbers?
Yes if you’re making fermented pickles and yes if you want baby sweets, which can be hopelessly tedious to pick. For general pickle-making, any pickles including heirlooms, slicers, Armenians, Japanese, you name it can be pickled if the fruits are cut at the right time (little scissors are the perfect cucumber harvesting tool). Ideally, you want the seeds inside to be visibly formed, but still soft and translucent.
Why not grow different kinds? We grow about 6 plants of a pickling variety that’s resistant to bacterial wilt, because pickling varieties in general do make a slightly firmer pickle. The problem is that pickling cucumbers require hands-and-knees picking because the foliage camouflages the fruits so well. In hopes of easier picking, this year I’m growing ‘Little Leaf’ – an open-pollinated variety I haven't grown since I left Alabama. In addition, four or five vigorous slicers will produce plenty of cucumbers for pickles. I’ll grow ‘Lemon’ or another small heirloom in the fall, and use them in refrigerator pickles.
