It may be the middle of January, but we’re already dreaming of summer’s bounty. Cucumbers are one of our must-grow summer crops for beginners and experienced gardeners alike. Unlike the grocery store, which may carry one or two varieties, growing your own cucumbers gives you access to many different varieties and types of cucumbers. In this post, we’ll dive into the different types of cucumbers and a few of our favorite varieties so you can select the best cucumber for your garden.

Types of Cucumbers

Cucumber varieties feature a wide range of growing habits, shapes, sizes and other characteristics that we use to divide them into different categories. These categories can help you select the right cucumber for your garden and palate.

Pickling Cucumbers

As their name suggests, pickling cucumbers are bred for pickling, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them fresh! Many gardeners love snacking on pickling cucumbers too. However, they’re ideal for pickling because they have firmer, drier flesh and thicker skin, which helps to absorb brine better and holds up better to canning. They’re also highly productive, producing tons of smaller cucumbers, ready to fill your pickling jars. 

Beginner Favorite: Arkansas Little Leaf Pickling 

Arkansas Little Leaf is a classic pickling cucumber with extensive disease resistance and good productivity. The compact vines have multiple branch points and will easily climb any trellis or fence. They feature relatively small leaves, which makes finding the cucumbers much easier. Arkansas Little Leaf has parthenocarpic flowers that don’t require pollination. You’ll get fruit even when the plants are under stress or lack a pollinator. 

The cucumbers grow to about 5 inches long and are ideal for pickling. However, they also have great flavor for fresh eating and produce quite early, in just 59 days.

Slicing Cucumbers

Slicing cucumbers tend to grow longer and have moist, sweet flesh and thin skin. As the name suggests, they’re great for slicing and perfect for snacking and salads. You can also use slicing cucumbers for pickling, but you may find that the pickles turn out a bit less firm than they would with pickling varieties. 

Beginner Favorite: Marketmore 76 Cucumber

This is one of the standard open-pollinated market varieties. Marketmore 76 produces high yields of uniform dark green 8-inch fruits. Use them as slicers for salads, sandwiches, and other meals or harvest them small for pickling. 

Marketmore 76 is ready to harvest in 57 days and thrives in the Mid-Atlantic and north. It displays excellent disease resistance and is bitter-resistant.

Burpless Cucumbers

Cucumbers contain a compound called cucurbitacin. In high quantities, it can make cucumbers bitter and can cause indigestion and burping in some folks. To avoid this, growers bred burpless cucumbers. 

These thin-skinned cucumbers contain low levels of cucurbitacin making them easier to digest for sensitive folks. Burpless cucumbers are sweet and mild, perfect for fresh eating or pickling.

Beginner Favorite: Suyo Long Asian

This sweet-flavored, “burpless” cucumber is hot weather tolerant and widely adapted. A Chinese variety, it has proven to be exceptionally hardy, productive, and fine-flavored even under adverse conditions. In Twin Oaks Seeds’ 2013 Downy Mildew trials, Suyo Long was one of the best.

In the Southeast, you can plant Suyo Long as an early, main season, and late season variety. The 15 to 18-inch long cucumbers are excellent fresh or pickled.

Specialty Cucumbers

There are many cucumber varieties that don’t fit our traditional idea of a cucumber. These varieties may look a little unusual but offer delicious, unique flavor and are suitable for pickling or slicing. 

Beginner Favorite: Mexican Sour Gherkin (Mouse Melon, Sandita)

Mexican Sour Gherkins are always a favorite at our tastings! Immature, they taste like cucumbers; when fully mature, they taste like pickled cucumbers. Their adorable mini watermelon-like appearance makes them a fun choice for snacking. 

Plant the thin, vigorous vines on a trellis along a garden path for easy reach. Mexican Sour Gherkins are ready to harvest in about 73 days and continue to bear until frost.

These little cukes are actually of a different species altogether. Mexican Sour Gherkins are Melothria scabra while all the other varieties on this list are Cucumis sativus. They’re both members of the Cucurbitaceae family, which contains cucumbers, squash, melons, and gourds. While they’re not the same species, their flavor has earned them a spot on our cucumber list.

Bush Cucumbers

Most cucumbers are vining, so gardeners need a good trellis or plenty of space to let them ramble. Bush cucumbers have a more bush-type growth habit. They’re perfect for container gardening or other small spaces. 

Beginner Favorite: Spacemaster 

This little cucumber plant is ideal for small gardens and containers. It’s a newer variety developed by Dr. Munger at Cornell. Spacemaster produces bush-type plants with 2 to 3 foot long vines and 7½ inch long cukes.

In addition to its compact size, Spacemaster is widely adapted and works well for slicing or pickles. Plant Spacemaster early to avoid late-season diseases.

There are so many wonderful cucumber varieties to enjoy! Select the perfect cucumber for your garden whether you’re growing in containers, eager to make dill pickles, or just want a quick snack.

January may be the depth of winter, but it’s also when we begin starting seeds indoors for the coming season. Whether you’re new to gardening or just new to starting your own transplants, these are the seeds we recommend starting indoors over the winter and how to have success with them. 

At Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, we’re in USDA zone 7a. For northern gardens, or those much farther south, your ideal planting dates may be later than ours or even earlier. For exact planting dates based on your zip code, try our garden planner app.

Bulb Onions

The earlier you start onions, the better! To bulb up nicely, these plants need plenty of time to grow. In fact, we often sow them in cold frames as early as November. If that’s not an option, we recommend starting them indoors in January.

Cabbages

Cabbages are a wonderful, hardy spring crop. If you want cabbage quickly, focus on early varieties like Early Jersey Wakefield. We sow successions of cabbages for months, starting January 31st. Sow your first cabbages about 4 to 6 weeks before you plan to transplant them. 

For best germination, keep the soil temperature at about 75°F. You can reduce it to 60°F once your plants have germinated. For strong transplants, cabbages need strong, direct light and should be potted up as needed.

Maintain good air circulation around plants during all growth stages. Harden plants before transplanting, starting a month before the last frost. When plants have become properly hardened, they can stand a temperature as low as 20°F without buttoning up.

Broccoli

Broccoli thrives in the spring’s cool temperatures, so it’s a good idea to get your seedlings started on time. We begin sowing broccoli indoors on January 31st or about 4 to 5 weeks before transplanting out. 

You can transplant broccoli about a month before your last frost, but don’t transplant too early! If seedlings experience 20°F or lower, they may “button up” and only make tiny heads.

Cauliflower

Similar to broccoli, we begin sowing cauliflower indoors on January 31st. You can sow them about 4 to 7 weeks before your last frost so that they’re ready to transplant 2 to 3 weeks before that date.

Celery & Celeriac

In Virginia, we sow celery and celeriac in between January 21st and February 15th. Both plants germinate slowly in about 14 to 21 days at temperatures between 65 and 75°F. For best results, use a sterile seed starting mix and sow the seeds no deeper than 1/8 of inch. 

Celery and celeriac perform best in areas free of temperature extremes so they can be a bit tricky here in Virginia where the summers get hot. We try to get them out early and use a thick mulch to keep the soil cool.

Brussels Sprout

While Brussels sprouts are quite cold hardy, we don’t actually start these plants until late spring, between May and June. Brussels sprouts have a long season, and we grow them for a fall harvest. 

Sow seed 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep in deep flats or pots. Transplant them out to the garden as soon as they develop several sets of leaves.

Tomatoes

Sow tomato seeds indoors starting about 6 weeks before your last frost. We sow our tomatoes between February 21st and May 7th. Sow seeds about 1/4 inch deep in shallow flats. Tomatoes are warm weather loving plants and germinate best when you maintain a soil temperature between 75° and 85°F. 

When the seedlings have produced several leaves, transplant to 3-inch pots to promote root growth. After transplanting, keep seedlings at a lower temperature at night, 50° to 60°F, to promote earlier flowering in some varieties. Day temperatures should rise to 75° to 85°F. to promote rapid growth.

To develop hardy seedlings, expose your tomatoes to air currents and plenty of light. Water them sparingly, but don’t allow their growth to be checked by too little water. If you notice the leaves becoming yellow or purple, use a soluble fertilizer, fish emulsion, or liquid kelp to fertilize the plants. They need high levels of phosphorus, but too much nitrogen can delay fruiting. 

Don’t transplant your tomatoes out until your garden soil temperatures have reached 60 to 65°F.

Ground Cherries

See the tomato guide above.

Tomatillos 

See the tomato guide above.

Peppers

Sow peppers indoors 8 to 10 weeks before your last frost date. Plant the seeds about 1/4 inch deep in shallow flats. Like tomatoes, they need warm soil, between 75° and 85°F. In peppers, soil temperature makes an enormous difference in germination time! In warm soil, pepper seeds typically germinate in about 5 days, but in cool soil, they may need up to 20 days to germinate. 

Peppers don’t like soggy soil. Avoid over-watering or they may rot. Water them with warm water to keep the soil moist but not drenched. 

Pepper production is also greatly reduced if the plants become crowded or rootbound. When plants develop several leaves, transplant them into 3-inch pots. Pot them up again as needed until you’re ready to transplant them outside.

Don’t rush to transplant! You must harden peppers off carefully. Set them outdoors for a few hours on warm days, being careful not to let them wilt. Transplant your peppers outdoors after the dogwood blossoms have fallen and when the average soil temperature is 65°F or above (usually a month after the last frost).

Eggplants

Eggplants have very similar requirements to peppers (see the above section). Start them indoors about 8 to 10 weeks before your last frost. They need warm, moist soil to germinate well. 

Wait until 1 to 2 weeks after your last frost to transplant your seedlings. Don’t rush to transplant. Cold weather will shock eggplant seedlings and reduce production. 

Optional

• Lettuce
• Cucumbers*
• Collards
• Kale
• Watermelon*
• Marigolds
• Zinnias
• Cosmos
• Basil

*All the starred crops are members of the cucurbit family. Cucurbits have delicate root systems. If you choose to sow them indoors, it’s best to use paper or peat pots so that you can transplant them without disturbing the roots.

Learn more about starting seeds indoors:

• Basics: When to Start Seeds
• Basics: Seed Starting Supplies
• Basics: How to Start Seeds Indoors
• Basics: Transplanting

Each year we try to expand the catalog a little bit, thoughtfully adding new open-pollinated varieties to our offers. For 2026, we’ve been able to add five new varieties to our listings. We’ve focused on disease resistance for southern gardeners, and added a few new, more colorful crops for home and market gardeners to enjoy.

Manoa Wonder Pole Bean (60 to 70 days)

This vigorous pole bean offers excellent resistance to root knot nematodes. Dick Hartmann at the University of Hawaii bred this variety by crossing Hawaiian Wonder and a nematode-resistant variety, Alabama No. 1. It performs well in tropical and subtropical climates.

The pods grow to 5 to 7 inches long and are filled with brown seeds. Manoa Wonder is ideal for eating fresh, canning, freezing, or leaving to mature for dry beans. For fresh eating, harvest the pods when they’re young and tender. 

Buy Manoa Wonder Seeds

 

Green Savage Pole Bean (80 days)

Green Savage was developed at Louisiana State University (LSU) as part of Dr. J.C. Miller’s campaign to release a stringless, prolific, straight-podded pole bean. Over three years, Green Savage had the highest yields in the LSU trials. 

Its disease resistance, flavor, and consistent, high yields make it an excellent choice for home or market gardeners. 

Buy Green Savage Seeds

Patchwork Pepper

Featuring striking variegated leaves and red and purple striped peppers, this variety is a beautiful addition to any garden. It’s a perfect choice for those looking to incorporate edible varieties into their landscaping.

Patchwork peppers are triangular-shaped with tasty, sweet flesh perfect for fresh eating or cooking. 

Buy Patchwork Seeds

 

Brad’s Atomic Grape Tomato

Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms developed this largish cherry-type tomato to feature stunning colors and sweet rich flavor. The tomatoes ripen from lavender/purple to a vibrant mix of olive-green, red, and brown/blue with bright, multicolored stripes in shades of green, gold, lavender, and red. 

Don’t worry, Brad’s Atomic offers more than beautiful colors. The plants have superior disease resistance, and the sweet tomatoes hold well on the vine. Their size makes them easy to pick and perfect for snacking.

Buy Brad’s Atomic Grape Seeds

 

Fantasia Carrot

Can’t decide which carrot variety? Try Fantasia! The Organic Seed Alliance first grew this rainbow mix of carrots in 2022. Fantasia carrots offer sweet flavor in shades of orange, purple, and yellow. 

Kids will love helping you pull this variety from the garden, and it’s a great choice for market growers looking to add more color to their offerings. 

Coming soon!

Returning Varieties

We also have some old varieties returning to the catalog in 2026. We’re happy to have these varieties back in stock:

• Potomac Pole Bean
• Withner White Cornfield Bean
• Dean’s Purple Pole Snap Bean
• Lazy Wife Greasy Snap Pole Bean
• Carwile’s Virginia Peanut
• Carolina Black Peanut
• Sophie’s Choice Tomato
• Striped Roman Paste Tomato
• Big Rainbow Tomato
• Grey (Tender Grey) Zucchini
• Erlene’s Green Cotton
• Sea Island Brown Cotton