Can You Grow Cucumbers From Pickle Seeds

At the end of a harvest, you pick your crops and save some seeds to plant the following year again. It’s a time-tested practice that ensures a steady supply of vegetables for you and your family. But what about when you’ve pickled your food? Can you grow cucumbers from pickle seeds?

Unfortunately, you can’t grow cucumbers from pickle seeds. The process of pickling involves boiling and fermenting in brine or immersing the food in vinegar. These processes will alter the seeds and render them unable to grow new cucumbers.

Growing cucumbers and pickling them can be a fun process, but it can also raise many questions. Read on to learn more about the best cucumbers to use when pickling and how to do it successfully.

How To Pickle Cucumbers

One of the best parts of gardening is the ability to harvest your crops and store them in various ways. Many gardeners look forward to the process of pickling certain vegetables, and cucumbers are one of the most popular veggies for this.

There are various recipes and methods for pickling cucumbers you can follow. The most crucial aspect of any pickling recipe is going to be preparing your brine.

For this, you’ll need vinegar, seasoning, and water. The seasoning you add to your brine will depend on what flavor profile you want your pickles to have, but you can stick with only salt for basic brine.

Once your brine is ready, you can follow these simple steps to pickle your cucumbers.

1. Slice your cucumbers. You’ll need to slice your cucumbers evenly and thinly. Take care when using sharp knives and try to make each slice of cucumber uniform.
2. Put the slices in a jar. Put as many of the slices into a mason jar or similar container. This would be an excellent time to top your cucumber slices with an extra seasoning that you didn’t add to your brine if you’d like. Some of the most popular seasonings to add at this step are crushed garlic, onion, red pepper flakes, or jalapenos. 
3. Add brine to the jar. Take the brine that you’ve prepared and add it to your jar. Make sure your jar is full but not overflowing. Add the lid to your jar and make sure it’s screwed on to air-tight.
4. Allow the slices to marinate. Allow your cucumber slices to marinate for as long as you want. The longer you allow them to marinate, the better their flavor will be when you eventually open them. For best results, let them marinate in the brine for a minimum of one day.

Pickling your cucumbers is a straightforward process. So long as you properly prepare the pickles, they can last in your refrigerator for up to two months unopened.

Can You Pickle Any Cucumber?

Yes, you can pickle any variety of cucumbers. However, they won’t all have the same taste and texture after the pickling process.

The best types of cucumbers for pickling are pickling cucumbers. They have a firm texture that will hold the flavor of your pickling brine the best. 

Another good option for picking is English cucumbers. They have a higher water content, so they’re likely to turn out a bit mushier than the pickles you buy at the store. However, they’ll still absorb plenty of flavors and will make a good pickle in a pinch.

How Do You Get Seeds From Pickles?

You can’t do much with the seeds from pickled cucumbers. They can’t be used to grow new cucumbers, and the pickling process will make them unsuitable for use in cooking. 

However, if you’re wondering how to get seeds from pickling cucumbers, that is easy. Pick the cucumbers that you’d like to extract the seeds from, and make sure the cucumbers you choose are free of disease and damage.

Then, you can remove the seeds and place them in a bucket with a small amount of warm water. Keep the seeds in the water for three days, and stir them once a day. This process will clean the seeds while also separating the good seeds from the bad ones.

At the end of the three days, you’ll see a combination of seeds and pulp floating, and some seeds sunk to the bottom. The seeds and pulp floating in the water will need to be discarded. The seeds resting on the bottom are good to use for replanting.

Can You Grow Cucumbers From Store-Bought Cucumbers?

You may be wondering if you can save yourself an extra trip to buy seeds and use the ones you’ve extracted from cucumbers bought at the store. The answer to this is tricky. It is possible that you could grow cucumbers from seeds collected from the one you bought at the store, but it may not always work out.

Store-bought cucumbers are grown with a hybridization process. This means that the cucumber is grown from different original plant varieties. This may not give you the result you’re looking for when planting.

It’s also possible that the cucumbers you bought at the store were harvested before their seeds could fully mature. Seeds that are immature and haven’t had a chance to germinate won’t grow when replanted.

Your best bet is to buy your cucumbers from a local farmers’ market or something similar. You can ask questions about how they were grown and picked to determine if their seeds can be replanted.

Final Thoughts

As it turns out, you can’t grow cucumbers from pickle seeds. You can extract seeds from cucumbers that you’ve bought at the store and grow a new crop from those, but once a cucumber has been pickled, its seeds are no longer viable for growing a new plant.

There’s a lot to learn about pickling your vegetables and growing cucumbers. The more you learn, the easier it becomes as you delve into growing and pickling your own food. Have fun pickling different types of cucumbers and spend some time experimenting with new recipes.