Cucumber ‘Orient Express’
* Common name: Cucumber ‘Orient Express’
* Botanical name: Cucumis sativus ‘Orient Express’
* What it is: Why pay $2 apiece for those long, tender, slender, shrink-wrapped cucumbers at the supermarket when you can grow your own for pennies each? ‘Orient Express’ is one of the best varieties of this type… burpless, extra long and tender enough that you can eat the skin as well as the flesh.
* Size: Plants will grow 6 to 8 feet up a trellis. Fruits are 10 to 12 inches each.
* Where to use: Mainly vegetable gardens, but any sunny, well drained spot will do.
* Care: Plant seed directly in garden in May and then every 2 weeks through June for a continuous harvest. Keep soil consistently damp. Work compost into soil at planting, then scatter a balanced organic fertilizer around the base every 3 or 4 weeks. Cukes are best trellised rather than let to sprawl over the soil. Watch for and control cucumber beetles.
* Great partner: Carrots, beets, lettuce and/or Swiss chard.
I’ve grown the Orient Express cucumber for years with outstanding success. They grow well in our climate and produce the best tasting cucumbers! This year (2017) I was not able to find plants or seeds for this variety. What happened? Why would they drop this fantastic variety? I was so disappointed! I tried the Tasty Green variety, but am not thrilled with it. It grows well, but does not produce as many cucumbers. They are not long and thin but rather stubby. The seeds are larger. The skin is tender and the taste is okay but, in my opinion, not as good as the Orient Express.
Sally,
That can happen. As new varieties keep being introduced, some of the older ones drop by the wayside. Once growers and seed-sellers are convinced that something newer is both better and similar, that one takes over. That could be what’s happening with Orient Express, which itself was replaced by Orient Express II.
I’ve had good success with ‘General Lee,’ if you want to give that a try (assuming no seed companies carry Orient Express II in 2018). Some other good long ones with mild flavor and good yield are ‘Tendergreen,’ ‘Sweet Success,’ ‘Sweet Slice,’ ‘Suyo Long’ and ‘Summer Dance.’