County Fair seed source

[duajones]

I bought them in the past from Park but they were out so I ordered a couple of packs from Reimers. 3.50 for the pack but didnt realize I was only getting 12 seeds.
Those of you that grow this variety, where do you get your seeds?

[tjg911]

prices vary, see below.

CF is the only cuke i have grown for the past few years. any other cuke i can pick for 2 weeks then they start to die. CF it is resistant to bacterial wilt (BW) so i assume that's your case too or maybe you like it for a pickler. i use it for a slicer due to BW and now that is not a problem. i let them get large say 6-8", they are juicy and the skins are not tough. when i first started picking this year (probably other years i don't remember) i picked them at 3-5" and they were dry but maybe that was due to being early. i water them daily so that was not the problem.

CF is hard to find! territorial seeds in oregon used to carry them but it disappeared from the catalog a couple of years ago. if you google who sells CF you may find other seed companies. i have found 2 other BW resistant cukes but i have not grown them.

in the 2010 shumway catalog they have calpso hybrid pickler 02009 on page 24, $1.95 for 50 seeds.

in johnny's 2010 catalog they have h-19 little leaf 331g on page 30, $2.95 for 15 seeds.

and of course in park's 2010 catalog they have county fair 5127 on page 102, $1.75 for 20 seeds.

johnny's tends to be expensive for anything they sell and their s&h is high too. i have not bought anything from johnny's for many years.

tom

[duajones]

I like the County Fair as a pickler and have never had a problem with them being dry. CF and Summer Breeze produce real well for me but I prefer CF because the skin isnt near as spiney and easier to prepare.
I will probably buy from Parks again when they have them in stock as they are sold out right now

I have not experience BW as of yet, just like the variety because it needs no help with pollination

[rnewste]

Duane,

I am also on the hunt for County Fair seeds. Let me know if you find a source and I will order them for both of us - then send you a pack, as you did me a big favor earlier this year sending me some of your Diva seeds. I am really enjoying them right now:



Raybo

[duajones]

Diva is a keeper for sure!!

[tommytonk]

http://www.reimerseeds.com/county-fair-cucumbers.aspx

[tommytonk]

http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/...hp?pid566.html

[cottonpicker]

I got mine from REIMER also.
Also plan to grow DIVA.

LarryD

[rnewste]

Duane,

I just ordered several packs of the County Fair seeds from Nichols - 30 seeds to a pack (thanks tommy for the Link). PM me your address and when they arrive, I will send you a pack.

Raybo

[KLorentz]

Gourmet Seed had County Fair this year.When I first got it about some 20 years ago Gurney had it when it first came out.Now it is extremely hard to find it.I do not trust reimer seeds Park has carried it but right now my view on Park is they are unreliable because of their Chapter 11 filling.


Kevin

[duajones]

I believe what I have growing is not true County Fair.
The plants are loaded with male flowers and I have not seen this from CF the many times I have grown it.
My source was Reimers

Did some reading on the variety and found this:

The County Fair cucumber was the result of a very complicated
> cross-breeding program.
> The suppliers failed to keep the seed line pure and have been
> unable to reproduce it exactly.
> The best pickling variety that we offer which is bitterfree and
> doesn't attract beetles is Little
> Leaf. Other slicing cucumbers that are not bothered by beetles
> include Sweet Success, Sweet
> Slice, Park's All Season Burpless, and Park's Bush Whopper II Hybrid.
>

[rnewste]

Duane,

Were the County Fair cukes from the pack I sent you some time ago, or from another source. The C.F. I sent you were from Johnny's, as I recall.

Raybo

[duajones]

Ray,

not sure what happened, but I never got any CF seeds from you. You stated above that you got them from Nichols.

Having read what I posted about the problems with CF, I will probably switch to Cool Breeze as my pickler for the future. It performs as well as CF but is real spiney.

[duajones]

Bringing this thread back up. Park had them again this spring and I have many planted. Right now the plants look great but are putting out more male flowers than in the past. It has been predominately female in the past. Time will tell but it looks like I need to switch varieties. I wanted to give CF another try since I have had so much success with it in the past.

[tjg911]

if you want bw resistance i think this is the variety to grow. i'm organic and have had nothing but trouble with every variety i have grown here due to bw. cf is not effected and the plants live to mid/late september vs dying in mid august. at my other house bw was never a problem and i grew a lot of different cukes each year. sadly i can't do that now. i found a couple of other varieties that are claiming bw resistance but i have not tried them. i probably named them in a previous post in this thread.

tom