Small, rounded, pale yellow cucumbers.
- Organic
- Fruits resemble a lemon
- Faint lemon flavor
- Extremely productive
- Rust and drought resistant
- 58-70 days
- ±700 seeds/oz
Pick at 1½–2½" diameter. This versatile cucumber is sweet and flavorful, and doesn't have much of the chemical that makes other cucumbers bitter and hard to digest. Though often served raw, Lemon is also a good pickling cucumber. Specialty market salad item. NOTE: Very late to begin bearing. USDA Certified Organic. Avg. 18,500 seeds/lb. Packet: 30 seeds
- Light: Full sun
- Matures: 65 days
- Plant spacing: 48 to 60 inches apart
- Plant size: Very long vine
Heirloom. Round and yellow describes this tennis ball-sized cucumber, which is a perfect serving for one or two people. It is believed to have been introduced to the US in the late 1800s. Lemon cucumber does not have a lemon taste, only color, but has a thin, tender skin with a flavor a little milder than a regular cucumber's. One great advantage to this cuke is that you can eat it all at one sitting with no half-cuke left to store in the fridge. Prolific plants are easy to grow and seem to need less heat to ripen than some cucumbers, making this a good choice for cooler climates. It is also less apt to develop bitterness. This is the cucumber often seen in ethnic Indian markets (budamkaya). To save space, give the vigorous plants a fence to climb. Try hollowing out the cukes for a cold soup summer appetizer.
Sowing: Cucumbers do not take well to transplanting, so either start them early in peat pots or plant them directly. Start yellow lemon cucumber seeds indoors about 2 weeks before frost, placing 3-4 seeds 1/2" deep in the pot. Keep the air temperature at least 80 degrees F. When two or three leaves appear on each plant, cut off all but the strongest plant with a scissors. Before planting them, "harden" the seedlings by setting them outside during the day. They should be planted no sooner than a week after the last spring frost, when the air temperatures consistently average 65-75 degrees F. For planting them in a hill, place three seedlings or 7-8 seeds in each hill; space hills 4-5' apart. If rows are preferrable, plant seedlings 1' apart or place 5 seeds within 1' and later thin them. Cucumbers love heat and cannot endure even a light frost; if cold temperatures threaten, cover the seedlings. Since cucumbers love to climb, providing a trellis will save space in your garden and produce straighter cucumbers that are easier to pick; however, the vines will simply spread out over the ground if no trellis is provided. Some gardeners plant their cucumbers with corn, since the two plants benefit each other and the cucumbers will climb the corn. Planting several radishes with cucumbers seems to repel damaging cucumber beetles; however, cucumbers do not like being planted near potatoes or aromatic herbs.
Growing: Moisture is the key to growing excellent cucumbers; keep the soil consistently moist. When the vines have developed, apply mulch or straw to conserve moisture and control weeds. Watch out for cucumber beetles, and remove them immediately to prevent damage.
Harvesting: This round, lemon colored cucumber works very well for both pickling and slicing. For best taste, harvest at 1.5" for pickling and 2" for slicing. Cucumbers store very well in the refrigerator.
