Like any pickler, they will get about 7-8 inches long and about 3-4 inches thick and they'll turn yellow. If you let them get this way, it signals to the vine that it has succesfully reproduced and the vine will quit producing and eventually wither away. It is important that you keep the cukes picked. When to pick depends on what you want to use them for. We use them at about 2 inches for sweet gherkins, for dills, we let them get about 4 inches. When picking cukes you'll always miss a few and find them next time through. These are the ones we peel and slice for fresh eating. You can also use these to make pickle relish. Remember, if you find any big yellow ones, get them off the vine immediately. You can eat them if you must but, I generally throw them to the chickens. Hope this helps and good luck!

I planted a bunch of "Snow Fancy Pickling" cucumbers and had a racoon or something dig up all but 3 plants. So I bought two "burpless" plants at the home center as that was all they had left so late in the season. They're all growing and producing and I've picked a couple of each variety at only about 4-5 inches long. The Snows seem to be short and fatter than the burpless. But my question is this - this is my first time growing them and both varieties, especially the Snow, have spines coming right out of the cucumbers!! I never saw a cucumber with spines before! So I can't see how I can get away with NOT peeling them! How do I get rid of the spines? I planted the Snows specifically to grow for pickling (which is another thing I've never done before!) and I didn't plan on peeling them before pickling so what do I do? Lisa

Good recommendations. I do a rip of pickles each year and did some up special this year because I had tinkered with entering some stuff in our county fair and it would have been done up a bit differently than I normally do my own. I agree that using white vinegar is important for appearance on pickles. One does not want cloudy sediment on the bottom, either. When I do my own, I use apple cider vinegar but it makes a difference in clarity. So does not using salt with iodine in it. It's VERY important to use the proper cuke for pickles both for appearance and for just general appropropriate size and texture. It's easy enough to Google pickling cukes to make a choice so I won't go into it much. There are even special cukes specifically for making Gherkins. One wants to pick these cukes young. If you are doing sliced pickles it makes a lot of difference in every respect. Young means tiny seeds, almost transparent and not a lot of 'gel' around them. Picking them young also translates into firmer flesh consistently through the fruit, but not 'tougher'. If you are doing whole pickles, you want each fruit to be of a consistant size! If you are doing slice, consistency also matters both in diameter and width of slice. Whole pickles look great carefully stacked on end. Yes, you will see that done for fair, even down to greenbeans. Even labeling is important. Many of our 4-H'ers cut gingham circles to lay over the lid and under the band and pink around the edges. You may even want to plant a mess of your own pickling cukes (can be done in urns, even) to get just the right variety. Don't go to salad cukes, it's for desperate circumstances. LOL. I've done it just to use them up, but it doesn't make prize-winning results. And most of all is brickle. My mother used that word to describe what a pickle should be. So crisp it snaps. What does that have to do with appearance? Well, you can tell on sliced pickles whether the slices 'flop' and bend. The slice on a good pickle will hold it's plate-like shape. I've done it with ice and brine, but pickle crisp works too. It sounds like a lot of work, but if you do pickles routinely, it's just part of the pickle program and doing each little step the right way is as easy as the wrong way.

There's ONE more place. Sigh. However, we call it the angry place and I try not to give them my hard earned $$ It's called Dee's and it's in Oceanside. It's large, expensive but has tons of pots, a greenhouse, and a huge supply of seasonal plants. They're very peculiar over there and when they have sales, they have security set up so that you can only go one way through the place. During these sales, you are not allowed to bring in pocketbooks, purses or bags of any kind. I've never been frisked, but they look like they're ready to -___- The succulent offerings are nothing special, yet nothing to sneeze at either. They are mostly etiolated, but they DO have a few large plants to choose from. I'm going to make a trip there this weekend, will post pics. Again, all plants from here need to be treated for mealies. Come to think of it, I've never NOT treated when buying locally in Nassau County. I'd like to take a trip to Suffolk to see what's going on there, but may just end up checking out the greenhouse in Flushing on Franny Lou (Garden World). We have a Garden World with a good sized greenhouse here in Franklin Square, but their succulent offerings aren't even worth mentioning. Worse than our Home Deopt =S