Tag Archive | Little Leaf

Finding Little Leaf Cucumbers (H-19 Variety)

Dec6

“For years I have been growing these little leaf cucumberand now I can’t find them. They are great for dill pickels small seeds and crisp and the right size. Do you know a place to get these or something comparable?

Eugene”

(You can see Eugene’s question here.)

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Hi Eugene,

Thank you for your question! My guess is that the variety of cucumber you are looking for is H-19 Cucumber, although some catalogs list it generically as Little Leaf Cucumber.

H-19 is a great variety. It is open pollinated and that is where the problem sometimes comes in. Although it is open pollinated, there are certain regular leaf cucumbers that will cross with it and mess the genetics up. The seed from the H-19 is compromised and is not pure enough to be sold by seed companies.

(Image used with permission of David’s Garden Seed)

Don’t fear — H-19 is not gone forever! It just means that the seed company that you normally buy from has a seed producer that had a mixup with crossing or a crop failure. Sometimes other companies will have a different supplier and you can still find it. Otherwise, you can wait until next year. (This is why I always make sure I have enough seed for the next year of ‘must haves’ or have a couple different go-to varieties for crops that I need for winter.)

I’m not sure who you buy your seed from, but here are a list of seed companies that do offer H-19/Little Leaf Cucumbers:

—Johnny’s

—High Mowing

—David’s Garden Seed

—Jung Seed/RH Shumways

—Southern Exposure

—Fedco

Also, if you are a member of Seed Savers Exchange, there are some folks that offer the seed through their member book too.

Hope this helps you out! Happy Gardening!

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