Days to Maturity: 55 to 60
A highly popular heirloom variety, Early Fortune Cucumber, also known as Special Dark Green, is grown as a fruit vegetable. Early Fortune sets dark green cylindrical fruits that are about 8 inches long and 2 inches wide. This dual-purpose cucumber has a crisp, fresh, clean flavor and can be eaten fresh or pickled.
Early Fortune Cucumber, an herbaceous annual, is a member of the cucumber and squash family (Curcurbitaceae), often called cucurbits. Cucumbers are tropical plants that love warm temperatures and high humidity. A Cucumis sativus cultivar, sometimes called the standard or stubby cucumber, Early Fortune is widely adapted, and with proper care, grows well in just about any conditions and produces continuously. Super dependable and high yielding, it grows vigorously, quickly forming a low-growing, far-spreading vine. Training the tendril-bearing vines to grow vertically on a support produces straighter fruit, helps prevent disease, and makes it easier to harvest.
Early Fortune Cucumber is monecious, producing both male and female flowers, and does not need a second plant for pollination. But the female flowers must receive pollen from the male flowers to set fruit, which is usually carried out by bees. So, it may be helpful to plant bee-attracting plants, like marigolds and zinnias, nearby to ensure pollination. Open pollinated, it produces seed that will grow true to variety, ideal for seed saving.
Easy to grow from seed, Early Fortune prefers a sunny location with loose, rich, well-draining soil, having a slightly acid pH. Cucumbers require frequent watering for proper growth, but leaves should be kept dry. If watered too infrequently, fruits will be bitter tasting. Harvest cucumbers often to promote heavier fruit production, picking fruits when young, before they overripen and turn yellow.
A warm-season vegetable, sensitive to cold temperatures and frost, cucumber seed can be direct sown into warm spring soil after the last frost date, or it can be started indoors 2 to 3 weeks before the last frost date and transplanted into the garden or containers after all danger of frost has passed. Succession plant another crop at 4 weeks for a longer harvest time. Flowers begin to set fruit with night temperatures between 55 and 75°F. Protect plants with row covers if temperatures are expected to dip below 50°F. Mulching also helps to moderate soil temperature as well as to maintain soil moisture and control weeds.
If you plan to start your seeds indoors, be sure to check out our Bio Dome Seed Starter Kit. With the Bio Dome, you can control the temperature, light, and soil mix to ensure your seeds become strong for transplant.
