Kitchen Garden Forum

We eat quite of lot of these pickled in dill brine so I've decided to grow a couple of plants this year for the first time. Can anybody tell me whether they will thrive outside in the same way that mini cucumbers do, and how many fruits I can expect to harvest off each plant. And are they climbers?

We tried pickling cucumbers (Parisian Pickling) outside last year for the first time but they were a pretty miserable failure but it was a terrible summer and you are a lot further South, perhaps somebody down there in the tropics has some better advice. What does the packet say about the variety you have?

I grew gherkins last year (Lidl's seeds) on the allotment and they did OK, even in all the rain. I had them climbing up a trellis against a corrugated iron fence.

In 2006 I grew them up canes and they spent most of their time throwing themselves on the floor. I had more gherkins than I could deal with that year as it was sunny. Lidl seeds again.

I have to admit I'd not have bothered trying them initially but Tigger gave us all a packet of seeds at Malvern Spring Show so I gave them a go and will grow them every year now. I am trying a different variety this year though.

Thanks for your comments folks. Geoff, you say yours were "a miserable failure". Was this the growth of them, or the pickling process. I'm keen to find a receipe for the dill brine, if anybody has one?

Primrose

I did a quick google and came up with quite a few links, hope they are of use.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=dill+%2B+brine+%2B+recipies&meta=

My favourite recipies are the German and Polish.

Mike

Thanks, will check them out. Now I'll probably have to start growing fresh dill as well or is that one of the herbs you can buy regularly in the supermarkets?

You can buy it "fresh" from supermarkets, but it's dead easy to grow and looks beautiful.

They simply didn't grow outside but were OK in cold greenhouse.

I alway grow 'venlo pickling' gherkins outside every year. They are extremely vigorous, and send out lots of stems, so they do not grow only up the cane that I have supplied for them, and always end up on the floor! I also grow dill, and I pickle the gherkins with malt vinegar and one whole dill flower head per jar. Everyone loves them, but I cannot stand them!!
So , go for it, I have found them one of the easiest of crops to grow. The leaves will probably get a bit of mildew towards the end of the season, but by then, we are all gherkined out!