Description
A SUMMER SLICER FOR THE KITCHEN
Long green cucumbers for fresh meals.
Marketmore 76 is a familiar slicing cucumber with elongated, dark-green fruit. Its useful place in a kitchen garden is the cucumber you can slice across a sandwich or into a bowl of fresh vegetables. The listed harvest size is about 8–9 inches, but tender skin and small seeds matter more than chasing the largest fruit.
Choose it for: Fresh slices, cucumber salads, and a vine you can visit often during summer.
FROM PACKET TO GARDEN
Wait for a warm seedbed.
Choose the outdoor window.
Direct-sow after frost danger has passed and the soil has warmed. Cold soil is a poor shortcut to an earlier cucumber crop. [1]
Sow, then make space.
Plant 1 inch deep. Allow 18–24 inches between established plants where vines are trellised or managed, plus room for access. Untrellised rows need wider room for spreading vines.
Keep roots undisturbed.
If starting indoors, use a short head start of about 3 weeks. Move the root ball intact. Thin direct-sown extras by clipping at soil level. [3]
Plan on roughly 4–10 days for emergence in warm conditions and about 67 days from sowing for first picking. Weather and establishment change the pace.
SMALL DECISIONS, BETTER HARVESTS
Practical growing tips
Check behind the leaves.
Long green fruit can disappear against the canopy. Make the same circuit of the trellis each time so one hidden cucumber does not stay on the vine unnoticed.
Pick before yellowing.
Harvest while skin is green and the fruit is firm. Yellowing, swollen fruit is beyond the best slicing stage. [2]
Make room for pollinators.
Flowers need visits from pollinating insects. Remove protective row cover when flowering starts. Use the cucumber pollination guide when flowers are not leading to fruit. [2]
Water the growing root zone.
Check soil moisture as the canopy and fruit load increase. Water at the base and avoid routine cycles of wilting followed by soaking. [3]
FIT THE CROP TO YOUR GARDEN
Choose a cucumber by how you will use it.
Marketmore 76 is the long slicer. National Pickling suits gardeners planning frequent small-fruit harvests, while Lemon Cucumber offers round, pale-yellow fruit for fresh eating. Compare harvest shape and garden space in the cucumber variety guide.
A FEW THINGS WORTH KNOWING
Before you plant.
Must I use a trellis?
No. Vines can spread on the ground if given enough space. A trellis makes inspection and picking easier; see how to trellis cucumbers. [1]
Can I leave fruit until it is larger?
You can, but oversized fruit develops coarser seeds and may slow further picking. Start checking before the listed full size and choose the texture you like. [2]
Will one seed packet fill my garden?
The packet contains 20 seeds. Choose the number of vines by available sunny space and how much you can water and pick. Seed count is not a promise of 20 established plants.
PLAN YOUR PLANTING
Plan for picking days as well as planting day.
Read the Marketmore 76 growing guide for staged care and harvest decisions. For a first cucumber crop, start with the seed-to-harvest cucumber guide. If a pot is your growing space, check the container guide before choosing its size and support.
Packet quantity is a seed count, not a guaranteed plant count. Planting figures are planning guides; weather, site, and care shape the crop.
Growing references
These references support the general growing guidance. Cultivar figures are planning estimates and are not a trial of a Hollowstead seed lot. Reviewed September 28, 2026.
- Seed Savers Exchange — Growing cucumbers. Sowing, germination, trellising, and seed saving.
- University of Minnesota Extension — Growing cucumbers. Pollination and harvest stage.
- University of Maryland Extension — Growing cucumbers in a home garden. Root care, watering, and growing space.
Reviews
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