The Mini Veggie That Deserves A Spot In Your Container Garden This Year

If you're a gardener but find yourself limited on space to grow the fruits and veggies you want, you often have to sacrifice what you want to grow for what will realistically fit. That's why many people turn to container gardening. While there are a variety of amazing plants you can grow in containers, some just aren't well-suited for small spaces. Sadly, there is one garden staple that can be difficult to grow if you have very limited space — cucumbers. Thankfully, there are some wonderful mini cucumber varieties that have a ton of flavor packed into a tiny package. Mini cucumber varieties such as Picolino (Cucumis sativus 'Picolino'), Mini Munch (Cucumis sativus 'Mini Munch'), and cucamelons (Melothria scabra) are perfectly suited to grow in small containers. Now you won't have to sacrifice what you want to grow for what you have space to grow.

Regular-size cucumber varieties tend to need a lot of room to vine out, deep soil for their large root systems, and one of the biggest problems many container gardens face: enough water to thrive. For that reason, gardeners with limited space often choose crops better suited to containers. While many of the mini varieties of cucumbers still have a vining nature, they usually have less branching than their bigger full-size cousins. You can still use a small center trellis in the middle of your planter to easily train them to grow up, not out. Because many mini cucumber varieties' fruit is significantly smaller than the average cucumber, they tend not to need as much space, making them the perfect choice for small container gardens.

Many mini cucumber varieties are not technically considered dwarf plant varieties perfect for small garden spaces, because it's not the plant that is dwarf, it's the fruit. But the varieties we like are significantly more manageable than full-size cucumbers and are easy to vertically train. Each of these mini varieties has its own unique flavor, shape, and use. All of these varieties perform best in warm, well-draining soil with consistent watering.

The first mini cucumber variety we recommend for growing in your small container garden is Picolino. Picolino can be grown in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 through 12. It produces small, 4- to 5-inch snacking cucumbers at maturity. They benefit from trellising. Picolinos have a thin, smooth, dark-green skin, are an organic cultivar, and have a mild flavor. They can also produce tons of fruit.

Mini Munch cucumbers are similar to Picolinos, but slightly smaller at 3- to 4-inches at maturity. They are perfect for container gardening in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 through 12. This variety can tolerate a little cooler weather but still prefers warm, well-draining soil with plenty of water. A great benefit of the Mini Munch is that the fruit is seedless.

The cucamelon is the smallest of our mini cucumbers and produces a ton of 1-inch fruit at maturity. They thrive in planters in USDA Hardiness Zones 2 through 11. They get their name because they look like tiny watermelons. Cucamelons make perfect snack-size cucumbers, and you can pickle them as well. These tiny cucumbers love warm weather and full sun. They also need frequent watering to keep their soil evenly moist. You don't need to trellis them; just let them grow.