About this variety
Bred at Cornell in 1976 and a global standard ever since, largely on the strength of its disease resistance. Marketmore shrugs off cucumber mosaic virus, scab and powdery mildew, which are the three things most likely to finish a British cucumber crop before it has really started.
The fruits are proper ridge cucumbers — 20cm or so, slightly bumpy-skinned, deep green, with a fresher and more characterful flavour than anything from a supermarket shelf. The firmer skin makes it the better choice for pickling, where thin-skinned varieties tend to soften in the jar.
Being open pollinated, it is the one to grow if you want to save your own seed. Let a fruit ripen until the skin turns yellow-brown, scoop the seed, ferment it in water for three days to remove the coating, then dry it. One cucumber yields hundreds of seeds.
