Cucumber ‘Tasty Green’
* Common name: Cucumber ‘Tasty Green’
The long, edible-skinned fruit of a ‘Tasty Green’ cucumber.
* Botanical name: Cucumis sativus ‘Tasty Green’
* What it is: You know those long, slender, edible-skinned cucumbers that sometimes sell for $3 a piece in grocery stores? ‘Tasty Green’ is a variety like that that you can easily grow in a home garden.
This cucumber is a burpless, hybrid, readily available Japanese-type that produces slender, dark-green fruits that average 10 to 12 inches long. The fruits are crispy in texture and sweet in flavor.
Plants are resistant to downy and powdery mildews and are good yielders. Expect mature fruits about 60 to 62 days after direct-seeding in the garden.
* Size: Vining plants will grow 6 to 8 feet up a trellis or netting, which is how cucumbers are best grown as opposed to letting them sprawl over the ground.
* Where to use: Mainly vegetable gardens, but any sunny, well drained spot with climbing support will do.
* Care: Plant seed directly in garden in May and then every two weeks through June for a continuous harvest into frost. Keep soil consistently damp.
Work compost into soil at planting, then scatter a balanced organic fertilizer around the base every three or four weeks.
Watch for and control cucumber beetles, which can spread disease. Options include floating row covers, yellow sticky cards as traps, and insecticides.
* Great partner: Plant around the base with carrots, beets, lettuce, and/or Swiss chard.