Cucumber vines can be trained to grow up trellises, down from balconies, and in hanging baskets to save space and keep the fruit clean. They can also be allowed to sprawl on the ground if you have lots of room.
In any case, you may wonder what the best vining cucumbers are to grow.
Vine Versus Bush Cucumbers
Technically, all cucumbers are vines. However, bush cucumbers are varieties that only grow two to three feet long. Vining cucumbers can grow up to eight feet long.
Bush cucumbers often have smaller fruit than vining cucumbers, although some varieties have full-size fruit. Most heirloom varieties are vining cucumbers.
Slicing Versus Pickling Cucumbers
Slicing cucumbers are usually eaten fresh. Pickling cucumbers have thicker skins and are often bumpy. The thick skins stand up better to pickling and stay crisper. Some people peel slicing cucumbers, but they can be eaten whole. Pickling cucumbers are usually shorter and squatter, so they fit in a pint or quart jar better.
9 Best Climbing Cucumber Varieties
Here are my picks for the best cucumber varieties for slicing and for pickling. Resistance is listed as listed on the Cornell University website.
1. Straight Eight
Type: Slicing
Days to harvest: 58
Hybrid or Heirloom: Heirloom
Resistant to: Cucumber Mosaic Virus
Harvest size: 8 inches
This cucumber is straight, with smooth, dark green skin. They are best picked at eight inches in length. This heirloom, open-pollinated cucumber is an All-America Selections winner. These cucumbers grow in most places. The vines are vigorous and grow quickly.
I trellis them to save space. If harvested at 3-4 inches long, you can pickle this variety. I grow straight eight cucumbers in my garden. They have lots of cucumbers throughout the season, and I like the taste.
They are burpless and have a thin skin. I eat them with the skin on. The flesh is white and crisp, without too many seeds. I have not pickled them, though.
You can get seeds from Burpee, Amazon, Ferry-Morse, and many other places. Many nurseries will have Straight Eight plants. You can also find plants at Home Depot.
2. Diva
Type: Slicing
Days to harvest: 58
Hybrid or Heirloom: Hybrid
Resistant to: Angular Leaf Spot, Cucumber Vine Yellowing Virus, Downy Mildew, Powdery Mildew, Scab
Harvest size: 5-7 inches
Diva cucumbers are sweet and thin-skinned. They are a burpless variety. Cucumbers are straight and dark green when ready to eat.
These cucumbers have all female flowers and do not require pollen to set fruit. They produce lots of cucumbers because almost every flower makes a cucumber. The fruit is seedless unless the flower is pollinated by a seeded variety.
Diva is an All-American Selections winner and will grow in most places. These cucumbers are recommended by Extension for home gardeners.
I like them because they have so many cucumbers and they taste very sweet and not bitter. When picked young, they can be pickled.
You can get seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Park Seed, and Amazon. Most nurseries will have Diva cucumber plants, but big box stores are less likely to have them than some others.
3. Marketmore 76
Type: Slicing
Days to harvest: 63
Hybrid or Heirloom: Heirloom
Resistant to: Angular Leaf Spot, Anthracnose, Cucumber Mosaic Virus, Downy Mildew, Powdery Mildew, Scab
Harvest size: 6-8 inches
These long, slender, dark green cucumbers were bred by Dr. Henry Mungers at Cornell University. They are resistant to a wide variety of diseases and produce lots of cucumbers.
Marketmore 76 is slow to begin bearing, but once it gets started, it bears for a long time. It stays sweet even under heat stress. They can be pickled when picked young.
These cucumbers grow well in the Northeastern United States but may not do as well in the heat of the South.
They are available from Burpee, Johnny’s Select Seeds, Amazon, and High Mowing Seeds. Plants are available at most nurseries in the Northeast, but big box stores are hit and miss.
4. Sweet Success
Type: Slicing
Days to harvest: 58
Hybrid or Heirloom: Hybrid
Resistant to: Angular Leaf Spot, Corynespora Leaf Spot/Blight, Cucumber Mosaic Virus, Scab, Target Leaf Spot, Watermelon Mosaic Virus (strain 2)
Harvest size: 12 inches
Sweet Success cucumbers are straight, dark green, and nearly seedless. The cucumbers are twelve inches long and burpless.
This cucumber is an All-American Selections winner and has a sweet, crisp fruit. They have only female flowers but do not need another variety to pollinate them. That means that these cucumber vines really produce a lot of cucumbers.
Sweet Success grows in a wide area and is resistant to many common cucumber diseases, so you should be able to grow these wherever you live.
Seeds are available from Burpee, Park Seed, and Amazon. Local nurseries should have plants.
5. Early Pride
Type: Slicing
Days to harvest: 55
Hybrid or Heirloom: Hybrid
Resistant to: Cucumber Mosaic Virus, Powdery Mildew
Harvest size: 8.5 inches
Early Pride cucumbers were bred by Burpee. They are an English cucumber and grow to be 8 ½ inches long by 2 inches around.
The cucumbers are dark green with crisp, juicy flesh and small seeds. Early Pride is sweet, never bitter.
They start producing early and produce for many weeks, so you get a large crop. The fruit will be better if you trellis this cucumber.
You can order seeds from Burpee exclusively. You will have to grow this one from seed because plants are not likely to be for sale.
6. Calypso
Type: Pickling
Days to harvest: 52
Hybrid or Heirloom: Hybrid
Resistant to: Angular Leaf Spot, Anthracnose (A), Cucumber Mosaic Virus, Downy Mildew, Powdery Mildew, Scab
Harvest size: 3-6 inches
The calypso cucumber was developed for commercial growers but is now common in home gardens. This medium green cucumber has white spines and a short, squat appearance.
It is picked when it is one inch in diameter. The cucumber is ideal for pickling. It yields an early, heavy crop.
Calypso has a mild, sweet flavor. It has only female flowers, so you need to grow a variety that has male flowers to get fruit.
This variety is a little harder to find than the slicing cucumbers, but you can get seeds from High Mowing Organic Seeds, Urban Farmer, and Amazon. Plants may be difficult to find.
7. Eureka
Type: Pickling
Days to harvest: 57
Hybrid or Heirloom: Hybrid
Resistant to: Angular Leaf Spot, Anthracnose (Co:1,2), Cucumber Mosaic Virus, Downy Mildew, Powdery Mildew, Papaya Ringspot Virus, Scab, Watermelon Mosaic Virus (Strain 2), Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus
Harvest size: 1 ½-5 inches
Eureka cucumbers are resistant to pretty much all the cucumber diseases that cause people problems. If you have struggled to raise cucumbers, Eureka may solve your problems.
They were designed as a pickling cucumber but are very good sliced.
They can be harvested very young for small pickles or harvested at five inches long for slicing or bigger pickles.
The cucumbers are dark green with white spines and firm flesh. They are widely adapted, so will grow in most places.
Eureka cucumber seeds are available from Park Seed, Harris Seeds, and Amazon.
8. National Pickling Cucumber
Type: Pickling
Days to harvest: 52
Hybrid or Heirloom: Heirloom
Resistant to: Cucumber Mosaic Virus, Scab
Harvest size: 2-4 inches
For a long time, national pickling cucumber was the most common pickling cucumber grown commercially. It isn’t anymore, but this cucumber is still a good bet.
It was developed by the National Pickle Packers Association in conjunction with the Michigan Agriculture Experiment Station for commercial use. The ends are blunt, not tapered, so they fill pickle jars better.
The bumpy, green skin is what you are used to seeing in a pickling cucumber. They can be pickled young at two inches long or grown about four inches long for a larger pickle. At four inches long, they will also work as slicing cucumbers.
National pickling cucumbers grow in most places. You can get seeds from Park Seed, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and Amazon. Many nurseries will have plants, as well, but big box stores don’t carry many pickling cucumbers.
9. Boston Pickling
Type: Pickling
Days to harvest: 55
Hybrid or Heirloom: Heirloom
Resistant to: Cucumber Mosaic Virus, Powdery Mildew
Harvest size: 3-6 inches
This heirloom cucumber is small and black-spined and just the right size for pickling. They are squat and barrel-shaped with crisp, juicy flesh.
The fruit is slightly sweet and tart with a hint of bitterness. The bitterness will go away when the cucumbers are pickled.
You can also use this cucumber for slicing, but it is best for pickling.
Boston Pickling cucumbers are reliable and have a heavy yield. You can get seeds from Eden Brothers, Ferry-Morse, and Amazon. Home Depot has plants listed on its website, and some nurseries will carry the plants.
Harvesting Cucumbers
When harvesting your cucumbers, cut the stem ¼ inch from the cucumber. Don’t pull or twist the cucumber or you can injure the vine and reduce the harvest.
Once the cucumber vine starts bearing fruit, harvest every day or every second day. The more you pick the cucumbers off the vine, the more the vine will produce.
In addition, older cucumbers become fibrous and inedible, so harvest your cucumber at the recommended length for the best flavor.
Cucumbers can hide under the foliage, so search the cucumber vine well when harvesting your cucumbers.
Storing Cucumbers
Cucumbers store best at temperatures of 55°F and in a humid, dark environment. Few of us have that in our homes.
We can store cucumbers for up to a week in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. Of course, pickling cucumbers stores them indefinitely. Pickles are acidic enough to can using the water bath method, so you don’t have to use a pressure cooker to make them.
Remember, the sooner after picking cucumbers that you use them, the better the flavor and the greater the nutritional value.
Cucumbers are good sources of water and fiber as well as trace minerals.
Cucumber Growing Tips For Climbing Cucumbers
Now that you have decided what cucumber variety to grow, here are some tips to get the best harvest possible.
- When trellising your cucumbers, tie the vines to the trellis with stretchy plant tape. Never use wire, as it will cut the vine in two over time.
- Trellised cucumbers have healthier vines and healthier fruit than cucumber vines allowed to grow on the ground.
- Alternatively, you can grow the cucumbers in a hanging pot at least twelve inches deep and fourteen inches in diameter and let the vines trail over the sides.
- For optimal harvest, don’t forget to fertilize your cucumber plants.
In conclusion, vining cucumbers come in both slicing and pickling varieties and grow best on a trellis. Straight Eight cucumbers, Diva, Marketmore 76, Sweet Success, and Early Pride are great for slicing. Calypso, Eureka, National Pickling, and Boston Pickling are great pickling cucumbers.
