Well you won't like what I have to say so feel free to ignore it, ok? Armenian cukes make lousy pickles of any kind IMO. Have tried them with all sorts of recipes for pickles and ended up pitching most of them. Relishes - fine, salads - fine, even diced and fermented with a mix of other vegetables - fine. But they are just too soft, too mushy for pickles, especially hot processed pickles for my tastes. Even adding Pickle Crisp doesn't help.

So I have to ask, if pickles was the goal then why not grow pickling cucumbers?

Dave

Dave,

That's kind of what I was afraid of! I actually did grow picklers, I had four hills of those and only one of the armenian. I really like the armenian for a refrigerator pickle but that one plant has produced about ten times as much as the other cucumbers! I had never grown armenians before as I had only purchased them from the farmers market and I didn't realize how prolific they were!

My other cucumbers have pretty much stopped producing. I was able to get about four pints of relish and four of slices before they pretty much quit. It just seems like every year I grow cucumbers that I never get enough to make actual pickles. I only get a couple every other day or so and I know that you are supposed to pickle them preferably within 24 hours so I never really get enough.

How many hills should it take to get enough to make pickles? It just doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble to only make like a pint a day or something if you know what I mean. Once our heat hits things just go downhill from there. I never would have thought that I would have this much trouble growing cucumbers! I thought they were supposed to be easy! ;)

Carly

Hi Carly - We make a fair amount of pickles each year here - not as many as others do - but for the 2 of us and visiting kids and grandkids probably 20=25 quarts. For that we plant an average of 5 maybe 6 hills with 3 plants in each hill. That way we get enough ready at one time for a fair sized batch.

We plant them all at the same time and when we have enough pickles made we just rip most of them out - leave one hill for salads and such - and replant something else.

Dave

Armenian cucumber is not really a cucumber, it is more of a melon. If I wanted pickle them, I would use very small and young ones that are real hard. I have never tried it. Only pickling variety of cukes make good pickle, The trick is to have less moisture contents and no seeds. Tough to eat but good to pickle. IMO

Dave,

Thanks, that gives me a better idea of how much to plant! What varieties do you grow? I haven't ever really found one that did really well for me, (except for the armenian!!) I am going to rip them all out as soon as I can get out there to do it. I just don't have anything else to do with them. I may try and replant some picklers for fall and see if they do anything. I have never done fall cucumbers but I have the space so it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot. Maybe I can get some pickles this year after all!

seysonn,

Yes, in researching whether they would pickle well or not I ran across that fact just yesterday! That is one of the things that made me figure that they wouldn't be good for pickling although I love the texture and taste fresh. I will probably still plant them but when I get overwhelmed I just won't feel guilty about ripping them out. I waited too long to do that this year!!

Carly

I made pickles with large ones. We did not like them. Yes, they were mushy. We did eat them but it took us half of forever.

Be sure to leave some on the vine to mature for seed collecting. If they go rotty on you when mature, the seed can still successfully be collected from within.

If I were a market gardener, this is one vegetable I would grow as there are a couple immigrant groups in my metro area than very much want this vegetable, but it is uncommon in markets. Actually that is how I first started growing it-- for someone who was excited to see it in my seed catalog.

Northern Pickling, Jackson Classic, Boston Pickling, Sumter, Picklebush all do well for me. Just don't plant single plants. Much better pollination when you cluster the plants in groups of 3.

Dave

matthias_lang

Thanks for answering! I won't even try to can them, I can't stand mushy pickles!! I don't know how you ate them! Do you know how they use it? I currently have 5 large ones in my fridge that I have no idea what to do with and I could use some ideas!!

Dave

Thanks for the tips! I am writing all those down and am going to order some. I usually do put in about five seeds per hill and then thin to three if they all come up. How far apart do you put your hills? I think I may be crowding mine. I tend to do that even when I try not to! And does it matter as much if I am growing them vertically? I grow them up two four foot cattle panels stacked vertically attached to t-posts.

Thanks again!

Carly

jcpyburn -

Armenian cukes ... wonderful things because they don't go bitter. But seriously prolific. They LOVE the heat.

We make Tzatsiki - cuke shreds, greek yogurt, mint and/or oregano, garlic, lemon if needed

We slice them thinly and marinate in a mix of rice vinegar and sesame oil (maybe with a hint of chili peppers) and maybe thinly sliced green onions and/or garlic and/or gingfer as a Japanese crunchy snack.

The SO slices them into sticks and dips them in ranch dressing or whatever.

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The SO's Indian co-workers used them in curries (they soften a bit, but not much) and as a fresh "chutney" sort of sauce with strange seasoning and raisins ... I don't do raisins, but as an ingredient to add a bit of crunch and stretch out the expensive mango chutney, I could do it.

Shredded the long way, they show up in spring rolls and as the garnish on some Thai dishes.

lazygardens,

Yes I have noticed that they do much better in the heat than my other cukes do! Oh i love tzatsiki! I think it is time to make gyros again! Those marinated ones sound good too!

I didn't know you could actually cook with them! So do they cook up kind of like a zucchini? If so I could substitute with them in a couple of zucchini recipes!

Thanks for all the great ideas!

Carly

I used chunked armenian cucs in a refrigerated mustard pickle. Also pickled in 2 inch spears with seeds removed. We liked them both ways. I may have used them in bread and butter pickles, too. I prefer them to be no more that 2.5 inches in diameter though. We "fresh" eat the ones that get any bigger than preferred size.