English Telegraph Cucumber

The English Telegraph is a very tasty cucumber variety that I happened to experience difficulty growing in 2020. The vines were no problem, as they started off just fine and they grew for quite a while. However, there were some problems associated with growing the fruit. 

 

 

It seemed that, based on the looks of the cucumbers that were being set every time the female flowers set that the fruit was suffering from poor pollination. This flies in the face of the claims of various seed companies that advertise English Telegraph as parthenocarpic. Not setting high-quality cucs because of poor pollination is definitely not a characteristic of parthenocarpic cucumbers. 

While I will not judge these company’s intentions, I could find no substantial evidence to demonstrate that the English Telegraph Cucumber is, in fact, parthenocarpic. On the contrary, the more I researched reliable studies, the more I found that there are very few parthenocarpic cucumber varieties at all that are not, by nature, hybrid.

So it ended up taking a while for this cucumber variety to really get off the ground with reliable high-quality fruit production. However, once the vines grew long enough, they were able to produce very nice long cucumbers. Perhaps this is just one of the traits of the English Telegraph cucumber variety – that it does not set good fruit until the vines are long enough.

In any case, no matter the fruit shape or length, it had a nice smooth texture and a pleasant palatable taste. It was very similar to many of the Japanese cucumber varieties I had previously grown, howbeit I doubt that the English Telegraph is nearly as heat-resistant as many of the Asian cucumber varieties are.

The Early Fortune Cucumber

While I know that a lot of people have their own opinions of cucumbers, I kind of like the Early Fortune cucumbers. Not because they are perfect in any way, but I really like cucumber varieties that have some unique coloring and shapes. In these two areas, the Early Fortune did not fail to deliver.

The color of this cucumber is generally dark green, but there are some light stripes that come in a striped format from the center of where the petals of the female flower formed. These are very similar to a comet or a shooting star. Perhaps I’m the only one who appreciates this?

 

Given the option between field growing and trellising, I would definitely trellis the Early Fortune cucumbers. They seem to want to grow a little longer, but can have some difficulty in determining which direction to grow.

Overall, the production of this variety was good, and the flavor was pretty standard for fruit in the pickling class of cucumbers.

 

The Double Yield Cucumber

 While I do have a lot to say about some of the cucumbers I grew this last year, there is very little that I have to say about the Double Yield Cucumber.

It seemed to be an average pickler, without any major problems. It grew steadily and did what cucumbers should.

 

As with some of my other cucumber varieties that I grew, there were some concerns with complete pollination and catfacing, but otherwise the vines did just fine with producing cucumbers that would work for pickling.

The Crystal Apple Cucumber

While I would not say “That was much better than I expected” to someone who had made a meal that I just consumed, for some reason it is completely fine to use these words when describing my experience with growing the Crystal Apple Cucumber. The Crystal Apple cucumber vines were fast maturing, productive and delicious.

While the gardener could pick them when they are green and nearly cylindrical I definitely prefer picking them when they have turned white and have filled out more.

The Crystal Apple cucumber was introduced in Sydney, Austrialia by the Arthur Yates Seed Company and was imported and offered by American seed companies, such as Ferry Morse, in the early 1930s. It has a relatively thick creamy white skin, but has a nice crunch and juicy flesh.

I really enjoyed looking at the fruit, as it always seemed abundant on the vines I grew. If given the opportunity to grow many of the cucumbers I did this season, I would definitely consider another go with the Crystal Apple Cucumber.