Chicago Pickling
Cucumis sativus 'Chicago Pickling'
A time-tested heirloom variety that's been the backbone of American pickle production since the 1880s, originally developed for the commercial pickle industry in Chicago. These medium-sized cucumbers have the perfect balance of firm flesh and tender skin that makes exceptional pickles, whether harvested small for gherkins or larger for dill pickles. Their reliable production and disease tolerance have made them a favorite among home gardeners for over a century.
Harvest
58-65d
Days to harvest
Sun
Full sun
Zones
2–11
USDA hardiness
Height
8-18 inches
Planting Timeline
Showing dates for Chicago Pickling in USDA Zone 7
All Zone 7 cucumber →Zone Map
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Chicago Pickling · Zones 2–11
Growing Details
Zone-by-Zone Planting Calendar
| Zone | Indoor Start | Transplant | Direct Sow | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | June – June | July – August | July – September | October – August |
| Zone 2 | May – June | July – July | July – August | September – September |
| Zone 11 | January – January | February – February | February – March | April – June |
| Zone 12 | January – January | February – February | February – March | April – June |
| Zone 13 | January – January | February – February | February – March | April – June |
| Zone 3 | May – May | June – July | June – August | September – October |
| Zone 4 | April – May | June – June | June – July | August – October |
| Zone 5 | April – April | May – June | May – July | August – September |
| Zone 6 | April – April | May – June | May – July | August – September |
| Zone 7 | March – April | May – May | May – June | July – September |
| Zone 8 | March – March | April – May | April – June | July – August |
| Zone 9 | February – February | March – April | March – May | June – July |
| Zone 10 | January – February | March – March | March – April | May – July |
Succession Planting
Direct sow Chicago Pickling every 14 days starting around May 1 in zone 7, and plan your last sowing no later than July 1. Seed put in the ground after that won't clear the 58–65 day harvest window before heat stress, powdery mildew pressure, and shortening days shut the plants down. If you're starting indoors first, sow 3–4 weeks before your transplant date and keep soil temperature between 70–85°F for reliable 7–10 day germination.
Two or three plantings spaced two weeks apart will spread your pickle harvest from roughly late July through mid-September without everything coming in at once. Pull spent vines as soon as production drops off — leaving them standing gives cucumber beetles a place to shelter and overwinter in the debris.
Complete Growing Guide
This heirloom variety reaches peak pickling quality in its narrow 58-65 day window, so succession plant every two weeks for continuous harvests rather than planting all seeds at once. Chicago Pickling thrives in full sun with consistently moist soil—inconsistent watering causes bitter fruit and encourages splitting, a common issue with this variety. The plants sprawl 8-18 inches and benefit from trellising to improve air circulation, which reduces powdery mildew susceptibility that this cultivar experiences more readily than modern hybrids. Watch for pickle worms and spider mites, which target pickling types aggressively. Unlike longer-season slicing varieties, Chicago Pickling tends toward early flowering but won't bolt excessively if kept picked; harvest fruit at 3-5 inches every other day to maintain prolific production and prevent overgrown, seedy specimens that lose their signature firm texture.
Light: Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day). Soil: High Organic Matter. Soil pH: Neutral (6.0-8.0). Drainage: Good Drainage, Moist. Height: 0 ft. 8 in. - 1 ft. 6 in.. Spread: 3 ft. 0 in. - 8 ft. 0 in.. Spacing: 12 inches-3 feet. Growth rate: Rapid. Maintenance: Medium. Propagation: Seed. Regions: Coastal, Mountains, Piedmont.
Harvesting
Harvest Chicago Pickling cucumbers when they reach 4-6 inches in length with a deep green color and firm, slightly bumpy skin that yields slightly to gentle pressure but snaps cleanly when bent. These picklers are ready at the gherkin stage for small preserves or can grow to 8 inches for standard dill pickles, though larger specimens may develop softer flesh. Practice continuous harvesting every 2-3 days rather than waiting for a single large crop, as this encourages sustained flowering and production throughout the season. Pick in early morning when plants are fully hydrated, as cucumbers harvested at this time maintain maximum crispness and firmness essential for quality pickles.
The "vegetable" is botanically a fruit– it is a pepo, a berry with a hard rind. Long and cylindrical, starting out prickly when young and smoothing out to a bumpy surface as it matures. Length and girth can vary based on cultivar and culinary purpose but grow at least 3 in long. Some varieties are bred to be seedless.
Color: Green. Type: Berry. Length: > 3 inches. Width: 1-3 inches.
Garden value: Edible, Showy
Harvest time: Summer
Edibility: Fruits are commonly eaten raw or pickled. Fresh cucumbers last in the fridge for about a week.
Storage & Preservation
Fresh Chicago Pickling cucumbers maintain peak crispness for 3-5 days when stored unwashed in the refrigerator's crisper drawer, wrapped in paper towels to absorb excess moisture. For optimal pickling quality, use within 24 hours of harvest as the natural pectin that creates firm pickles begins breaking down immediately after picking.
For preservation, these cucumbers excel in traditional brine pickles, refrigerator pickles, and fermented pickles. Their firm flesh holds up beautifully to hot water bath canning using tested pickling recipes. Small gherkin-sized fruits (2-3 inches) create perfect cornichons, while 4-6 inch cucumbers work ideally for dill pickles and bread-and-butter pickles. The variety's balanced moisture content and thick cell walls prevent the mushiness that plagues many modern cucumbers during processing.
History & Origin
Developed in the 1880s for Chicago's burgeoning commercial pickle industry, this variety emerged during America's industrial expansion into vegetable processing and preservation. While specific breeder documentation remains sparse, Chicago Pickling represents a deliberate selection within the broader pickling cucumber lineage, refined for the exacting demands of large-scale production. The variety's introduction coincided with the rise of mechanical pickling operations that required cucumbers with uniform size, firm flesh, and consistent quality. Its sustained popularity among both commercial operations and home gardeners for over a century suggests successful adaptation to diverse growing conditions, though detailed breeding records from that era are largely unavailable.
Origin: Himalaya to Northern Thailand
Advantages
- +Heirloom variety with proven 140+ year track record for pickle production
- +Perfect firm flesh and tender skin balance makes exceptional pickles consistently
- +Reliable heavy yields with excellent disease tolerance compared to modern varieties
- +Fast maturity at 58-65 days fits well into most growing seasons
- +Originally bred for commercial use, so performs reliably for home gardeners
Considerations
- -Vulnerable to multiple diseases including powdery mildew and cucumber mosaic virus
- -Susceptible to cucumber beetles and squash vine borers requiring pest management
- -Downy mildew pressure can be significant in humid or wet conditions
Companion Plants
Radishes planted at the row edges draw off flea beetles and provide some early-season interference against cucumber beetles before the vines really take off. Nasturtiums pull double duty as an aphid trap crop — set a few plants every 10 feet or so, check them weekly, and pull the stems when they get loaded up. French marigolds (Tagetes patula) are the one companion that has real evidence behind it: NC State Extension's own nematode case studies point to a solid planting of French marigolds as a practical way to knock back root-knot nematode populations between cucurbit seasons. In zone 7 Georgia, where nematodes build up fast in warm sandy soils, that's not a minor consideration.
Keep potatoes out of the cucumber patch — they share soilborne diseases and compete at roughly the same root depth. Melons look like a natural neighbor but they're in the same family (Cucurbitaceae), which means they host the same cucumber beetles and the same mosaic viruses; planting them together just doubles the target. Aromatic herbs like sage and oregano won't cause obvious damage, but their root exudates have documented mild allelopathic effects on nearby plants, and there's no upside to the pairing that justifies the risk.
Plant Together
Basil
Repels aphids, spider mites, and thrips while potentially improving cucumber flavor
Radishes
Repels cucumber beetles and squash bugs, acts as a trap crop
Marigolds
Deters cucumber beetles, aphids, and nematodes with natural compounds
Nasturtiums
Acts as trap crop for cucumber beetles and aphids, repels squash bugs
Beans
Fix nitrogen in soil and provide beneficial ground cover without competing
Corn
Provides natural trellis support and shade during hot afternoons
Sunflowers
Attract beneficial insects and provide afternoon shade for cucumber vines
Dill
Attracts beneficial insects that prey on cucumber pests like aphids
Keep Apart
Aromatic Herbs
Strong scents from sage, rosemary can inhibit cucumber growth and germination
Potatoes
Compete for similar nutrients and space, may harbor diseases harmful to cucumbers
Melons
Attract same pests like cucumber beetles and compete for water and nutrients
Nutrition Facts
Per 100g serving. % Daily Value based on 2,000 calorie diet. Source: USDA FoodData Central (FDC #169225)
Pests & Disease Resistance
Resistance
Good tolerance to scab and moderate resistance to bacterial wilt
Common Pests
Cucumber beetles, aphids, squash vine borers
Diseases
Powdery mildew, downy mildew, cucumber mosaic virus, anthracnose
Troubleshooting Chicago Pickling
What you'll see, why it happens, and what to do about it.
Plants wilting during the day even after watering, lower leaves with large tan spots between the veins and burned-looking edges
Likely Causes
- Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) — soil-borne, cause lumpy, distorted roots that can't take up water properly
- Downy mildew (Pseudoperonospora cubensis) — can cause interveinal chlorosis and leaf scorch alongside wilt
What to Do
- 1.Pull one plant and check the roots — if you see lumpy galls rather than clean white roots, you're dealing with nematodes, not a watering problem
- 2.Stop watering more; overwatering a nematode-damaged plant just accelerates rot
- 3.After harvest, remove all plant material from the bed and send a soil sample to the NCDA&CS Nematode Assay Laboratory before replanting cucurbits in that spot
- 4.If nematodes are confirmed, plant a solid block of French marigolds in that bed next season — NC State Extension recommends this as a practical suppression strategy
White powdery coating on upper leaf surfaces, starting mid-to-late summer, older leaves first
Likely Causes
- Powdery mildew (Podosphaera xanthii) — thrives in warm days and cool nights, common in August and September in zone 7
- Poor air circulation from crowded planting at less than 12-inch spacing
What to Do
- 1.Remove and trash the most heavily coated leaves — don't compost them
- 2.Make sure plants are spaced at least 12–18 inches apart and trellised so air moves through the canopy
- 3.Apply a potassium bicarbonate spray or a dilute neem oil solution at first sign; once 50% of the foliage is coated, you're mostly just managing decline
Yellowing, stunted new growth; sticky residue on leaves; small soft-bodied insects clustered on leaf undersides and along stems
Likely Causes
- Aphids (Aphis gossypii, melon/cotton aphid) — the most common aphid species on cucumbers in the Southeast
- Heavy aphid pressure is often a sign of nearby ant colonies farming them for honeydew
What to Do
- 1.Knock aphids off with a hard spray of water from a hose — do this in the morning so foliage dries before evening
- 2.Check for ant trails leading up the stems; if ants are present, managing them breaks up the aphid colony
- 3.Plant nasturtiums nearby as a trap crop — aphids tend to pile onto them instead, and you can pull and trash the nasturtium stems when they get heavy
Ragged holes chewed in leaves and flowers, yellow-green or striped beetles visible on plants, followed by sudden whole-plant collapse a few weeks later
Likely Causes
- Striped cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittatum) or spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) — both chew foliage and transmit bacterial wilt (Erwinia tracheiphila)
- Bacterial wilt has no cure once systemic; the beetles are the vector, so the only real lever is keeping beetles off the plants early
What to Do
- 1.Cover transplants or direct-seeded rows with row cover immediately after planting; remove it only when flowers open for pollination
- 2.After harvest, turn or till the bed to disrupt overwintering beetle eggs in the soil debris — NC State Extension identifies this as a key part of the beetle life-cycle intervention
- 3.Rotate cucurbits out of any bed for at least 3 years; NC State Extension recommends waiting that long before returning a cucurbit-family crop to the same spot
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does Chicago Pickling cucumber take to grow?▼
Can you grow Chicago Pickling cucumbers in containers?▼
Is Chicago Pickling cucumber good for beginners?▼
What's the difference between Chicago Pickling and Boston Pickling cucumbers?▼
When should I plant Chicago Pickling cucumber seeds?▼
Do Chicago Pickling cucumbers taste good fresh?▼
Growing Guides from Wind River Greens
Where to Buy Seeds
Sources & References
External authority sources used in compiling this guide.
See the Methodology page for how this data is sourced, what's AI-assisted, and known limitations.