Orders with subtotals $1,200 and above receive bulk pricing.
If you have placed orders totaling at least $1,200 within the past 12 months, additional orders qualify for bulk pricing.
Bulbs begin shipping in late September.
Trees and plants begin shipping in March.
Potatoes and onion sets begin shipping in late March.
Seeds ship year-round.
Tools and growing supplies ship year-round.
Orders with subtotals $1,200 and above receive bulk pricing.
If you have placed orders totaling at least $1,200 within the past 12 months, additional orders qualify for bulk pricing.
“A consistent performer in our greenhouse,” said Michael Goldman of Florence, MA. Also suitable for growing outdoors, this European cucumber has long (10–14") slim smooth-skinned fruits of very delicate mild flavor, seldom bitter and containing few seeds. Telegraph Improved was selected from Telegraph Long, one of the original parthenocarpics. Trellis vines for better-quality straight cukes. Parthenocarpic.
Items shipping from our garden seeds warehouse take 1–3 business days to process.
Asian cukes are more resistant to CMV than other types.
For really straight fruit, consider trellising your cukes. Adam Tomash and June Zellers grow theirs on a 5' arch made from cattle panel, a welded wire material with big holes. They explain this trellis system in an article in the MOF&G winter 2008-9 edition.
Culture: May be started indoors for early production, or direct-seeded when soil has warmed. Minimum germination soil temperature 65°, optimal range 65–95°. Very tender, will not survive frost. Direct seed 3" apart thinning to 1' apart in rows 4–6' apart or 6 per mound in hills 4' apart thinning to 3 best plants. For transplants: once seedlings have 1–2 true leaves, about 3 weeks old, plant 1' apart in rows 4–6' apart. Cucumbers require good fertility and regular rain or irrigation for abundant yields. Without adequate water, fruits will be misshapen and bitter. Pick cukes frequently for best production, or else the plants shut down. Make sure to remove blimps to the compost pile.
Combat striped cucumber beetles by handpicking early AM when the dew makes them sluggish, or use floating row covers, removing when cukes flower. Cucumber beetles are the vector for BW.
Using compost in conjunction with row covers (rather than either alone) increased cucumber yields at the University of Michigan.
Parthenocarpic varieties can set fruit without being pollinated, an advantage in cold cloudy summers. Gynoecious varieties produce almost exclusively female flowers for uniformity and high yields.
Saving Seed: Saving cucumber seed is easy! Take that big yellow cuke that got away and save it for seed. Scoop out the guts of overripe fruit and ferment it in an uncovered container for a few days. A moldy gross cap to the slurry means the seeds are ready to rinse and dry. To ensure true-to-type seed, grow only one open-pollinated variety per season.
Diseases:
Pest: Striped Cucumber Beetle
Cultural controls: use tolerant or resistant varieties, rotate crops, till under crop debris soon after harvest, use floating row covers until flowers appear, use plastic mulch, perimeter trap cropping (Black Zucchini and Blue Hubbard make particularly good trap crops), use yellow sticky strips, hand-pick early morning when beetles are very sluggish.
Materials: Surround, Pyrethrum (PyGanic).
For the latest results of our germination tests, please see the germination page.
All of our seeds are non-GMO, and free of neonicotinoids and fungicides. Fedco is one of the original companies to sign the Safe Seed Pledge.