This is first time I grow this type of cucumber and I am pleasantly surprised. It was started in heated greenhouse on April 12, got through 38F one night when my heater stopped working. Was planted in the garden on May 11, much earlier than I would normally do, but I had to leave for two weeks and can’t leave them in the pots, so I covered it with Agribon and left on May 19. To my surprise, when I return on June 3 the cucumbers didn’t die, but produced each a couple of cukes. The taste is excellent, it is pickling cucumber that is very nice for fresh eating - crunchy, but the skin is tender, unlike many pickling types. The grow habit looks nice, they do not fill in fast, but produce as they grow. They are parthenocarpic, which means they do not need pollination and can be grown in green house or net house as I grow them. They also seems to have only female flowers, so every flower produces the fruit. Couple tests still left: pickling results and powdery mildew test, that will come later in the game. But for now, I think I found it early pickling parthenocarpic cucumbers that produces tasty fruit and big numbers. On the picture bellow you can see the whole plant, keep in mind few cuckes already picked from it.
I planted Diamant last year in NE Ohio and had a lot of success. I think I paid $3.50 for 10 seeds, but am perfectly happy with the results. I just had one of the pickles we canned last year before reading this post! This year I planted Diamant, Corinto and Boston Pickling. The Diamant was directly sown outdoors so it is a little behind, but the Corinto was transplanted and is really taking off.
In past years I’ve grown Telegraph Improved and Manny in the GH. They do OK but they are slicing cukes.
I am trying H19 and one other pickling cuke also in the GH this year (too hard to get fresh pickling cukes at the farmers market), but can’t really say how they are doing as the first batch froze a month or so ago (a bit too close to the outside wall and winter wasn’t quite over yet). So I am on their replacements which just got put into the ground.
I do have H19 (Little Leaf) too, it was my main producer so far, but it first creates green curtain with male flowers and start producing later. Leaves are really small, but grow habit is a little messy, to many shoots. In a blind taste my DH said Diamant is better fresh than LL, but LL is good as well. Will tell the pickling taste in couple weeks when I do my first batch, for now we eating them fresh. But even if LL is better than D in pickling, I do not care - it has all the properties I need so far for my early cuke.
Can anyone ID this kind of cucumber. They are real crunchy and good. No bitterness. I lost the tag from the six pack.
Tony
