The Bush Crop Cucumber

One of my very favorite regular cucumber varieties that I grew this last year was the Bush Crop. An extremely compact variety, I would even call this variety a ‘dwarf’ cucumber, but I hesitate to call it a ‘bush’ cucumber.

While most of the agricultural industry would characterize short varieties as ‘bush’, they are not always like a bush. A bush vining plant would produce a lot of vines from a central stem, so that the fruit generally set in the crown of the plant. However, I have not seen this in any regular Cucumis sativus cultivar. Instead, what makes Bush Crop like a bush is the short internodes between the fruit and leaves. These short internodes make the vines very compact. Similar to a dwarf tomato plant, the fruit and vines of this cultivar are all cramped onto a plant that is much more compact than a regular cucumber vine.

Though, in my opinion, the fruit would be best for pickling, the flavor is generally good. I would say that those who would like to grow cucumbers in a very small garden space would do well with Bush Crop. That being said, I don’t recommend growing any fruiting plant in a container that is under five gallons, unless the gardener lives in a relatively cool temperate and not-too-moist climate. This is because pots are easily heated up by the sun and very few vegetables do well with warm or hot soil.