Lemon Cucumbers

In mid-May, I planted eight cucumber plants, eventually thinning them to four plants -- two heirloom lemon cucumber plants and two of the "normal" looking straight eight cucumber plants. I've never tasted a lemon cucumber before and was excited to grow something so I can taste it for the first time.

All four cucumber plants grew into giant monstrosities, but the hybrid straight eights had much larger leaves and set fruit a lot earlier. So I was harvesting the straight eights almost a whole week before the lemon cucumbers were ready.

The first thing I noticed about the lemon cucumbers were that they are pale greenish white and stay that way until they grow to full size, at which time they start to turn a beautiful golden yellow. About three weeks ago, I picked my first lemon cucumber, and it was a true beauty. I could not believe that something this perfect and beautiful was created by nature and planted by me, and furthermore, could not understand why by just the looks alone, this was not a more popular cucumber. Perhaps it lacks in taste?

That night, we cut up the lemon cucumber and had our first taste. It was absolutely delicious! It had all the flavor of a really good, fresh cucumber, but the best feature of all was its texture. It has the crispness of a really good apple.

Weeks later, I can now give a better comparison of the heirloom lemon cucumbers versus the straight eight cucumbers. While the straight eights are prone to becoming bitter when not watered regularly or with temperature fluxes, the lemon cucumbers have stayed flavorful and deliciously consistent despite dry soil conditions. The lemon cucumbers win hands down over the straight eights in crispness. The straight eights do produce a lot more cucumbers and the cucumbers are larger in volume so if volume is what you're looking for and you're not too picky about consistency, I guess you may pick the straight eight variety. But in my opinion, the lemon cucumbers are well worth it and I long for more land so I can put in several of these lovely heirlooms next year. It may catch up in production anyways, since after I picked two lemon cucumbers today, I noticed another 12 or so on the vines that look like they will be ready very soon!