Have you ever tried to grow cucumbers in your garden just to have your plants succumb to disease? With the Sweet Success cucumber, you’ll never have to worry about losing your harvest again! They’re easy to grow and disease resistant, making them a great addition to any garden.
If you want to learn more about what gives Sweet Success cucumbers their name (and the title of All-American Selections Winner), keep reading!
Characteristics of the Sweet Success Cucumber
Notable for its large fruits up to 14 inches in length, Sweet Success cucumbers are typically straight, long, and dark green. Their skin is smooth and thin, making them great for snacking.
The plants themselves can grow up to eight inches in height and spread more than 4 feet wide.
Typically this variety is seedless, known as an English cucumber, but if the plant is grown alongside other types of cucumbers, some undeveloped seeds may appear.
One trait that makes Sweet Success cucumbers such desirable additions to a garden is their disease resistance. They have immunity to leaf spots, scabs, and cucumber mosaic viruses, all pesky conditions that can plague a cucumber crop.
Sweet Success vs. Other Cucumbers
Comparatively, these cucumbers are sweeter than other seedless English cucumbers, hence the apt name. They’re typically tender and mild, with a crisp white interior.
The plants themselves tend to be more fruitful than other cucumber varieties, requiring more frequent harvests. They’re also some of the largest cucumbers you can grow.
Because they’re easy to grow and taste great, the Sweet Success cucumber makes a great addition to home and commercial gardens alike.
Eating Sweet Success Cucumbers
What you’ll really want to know about eating them is that Sweet Success cucumbers are also burpless! This means the cucumbers contain very low or totally absent levels of a chemical compound called cucurbitacin that can cause digestive problems.
This lack of cucurbitacin makes the fruit less bitter and also leaves you less prone to burping. So for these cucumbers that contain low or no cucurbitacin, burpless literally means burpless!
How to Eat
With their sweetness and thin, smooth skin, Sweet Success cucumbers are great for snacking, either on their own or in a recipe. No peeling is required!
Health Benefits
Cucumbers are made up of about 95% water, so they are very hydrating and refreshing to eat. The Sweet Success cucumber is no exception.
Additionally, they’re high in Vitamin C, an important nutrient to get from your diet as our bodies don’t naturally produce it. Cucumbers also provide Vitamin K, which aids in blood clotting.
Dishes the Whole Family Can Enjoy
Because of its sweet, tender nature, the Sweet Success cucumber is better for slicing and eating as opposed to pickling.
Like most other slicing cucumbers, they are great in salads, and sandwiches, and served as crudites with dip!
If you’re on the hunt for some unique and tasty recipes featuring your new cucumber plant, zoodles are fresh, fun, and versatile.
For an after-school snack, try your hand at some cucumber stackers for your kids to enjoy.
And if you’re still craving that tangy, savory bite that comes from pickles, a marinated cucumber salad is a great and simple alternative.
Growing and Caring for Sweet Success Cucumber
For growing the best Sweet Success cucumbers, select a planting location in full sun! They don’t like the cold, so planting them in the spring after the threat of frost produces the healthiest, most fruitful plans.
They take roughly two months to mature, but once they do, prepare to harvest your crop daily! Fruit left on the vine too long will turn bitter, bland-tasting, and start to turn yellow.
More Planting Tips
Sweet success cucumbers are versatile and tough. They grow and flower in lots of different circumstances, whether right in the ground outdoors or within greenhouse walls. Plant the seeds directly in your garden one inch deep in the soil, at least one foot apart, and with at least four feet in between rows of plants.
For the best results from direct sowing, grow your cucumbers in a cage or a trellis so the fruit will grow long and straight.
However, to avoid any cold snaps that may affect your plant, you can also start the seeds in pots indoors and transfer them outside when the true leaves appear.
For both direct sowing and transplanting, the cucumbers do well in either open fields or greenhouse planting. For more cucumber-planting tips, be sure to check out our post on how to plant cucumbers.
Water and Soil
Cucumbers need to be watered well and frequently. If your area doesn’t get a lot of rain, make sure to water your Sweet Success cucumber plant whenever the soil feels dry!
They also prefer warm, well-drained soil of either sandy or loamy composition.
Pollination
These cucumbers are both parthenocarpic and gynoecious, meaning they are self-pollinating and produce all female flowers. Because they don’t need pollinators to trigger fruit growth, they’re a great variety for greenhouses or other growing environments where natural pollinator insects can’t access the flowers.
A reminder: if you grow a Sweet Success near other cucumber varieties, it may cross-pollinate. This means some stray seeds might develop in your cucumbers.
Companion Plants
These cucumbers grow well with peas and beans, both other kinds of vining plants.
They also do well alongside herbs like oregano or dill, which deter pests away from the cucumber plant!
Where to Buy a Sweet Success Cucumber
You can get Sweet Success cucumber either grown for you already or you can get seeds so you can grow them fresh yourself.
Regardless of what you choose to do, we’ve looked into how to obtain this delicious vegetable to make your life easier!
Grow Your Own
Sold mostly as seed packs, this popular variety of cucumber can be found in seed-form online and in most gardening stores. However, finding a young plant or two around your local garden department is not unheard of.
If you’re ready to grow these cucumbers in your own garden, you can buy Sweet Success cucumber seeds from one of our favorite online seed retailers, True Leaf Market.
Fresh Eating
If you want to taste test the Sweet Success cucumber before committing to growing it, seedless English cucumbers are super common in most grocery stores. It’s often challenging to find specific information about a ready-to-eat cucumber in the shop.
But any English cucumber should give you a sampling idea of what to expect in terms of shape and flavor.
Ready to Grow a Sweet Success Cucumber?
Now that you know where to buy them and how to grow them, try your hand at planting some Sweet Success cucumbers for yourself!
Ready to continue discovering these funky fresh vegetables? Then learn more about cucumbers by checking out my planting guides, recipe tips, brand suggestions, and more!
- About the Author
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Leah is a writer, editor, and content manager with Minneopa Orchards and holds a master’s degree in English.
She grew up in the south and enjoyed long growing seasons spent in her father’s lush vegetable garden. Buying produce from the store was unheard of in her house!
As such, Leah enjoys writing about gardening and sharing her knowledge and experiences with others.
Leah can be reached at leah@applepiemedia.net