Marketmore 76

Marketmore 76 is widely regarded as the standard long slicing cucumber, producing abundant fruit that generally runs from about six to ten inches long, weighing roughly eight to twelve ounces. The fruits are dark green with a relatively smooth skin covered in tiny, soft spines that rub off easily. Inside, the flesh is crisp and mildly sweet, and it holds that flavor without turning bitter even in hot summer conditions.

The fruit is grown mainly for fresh eating, prized for its deep-green color and mild flavor when sliced raw into salads or used as a garnish. Its reliable production and market-standard appearance also make it a favored choice among growers selling directly to fresh markets.

Marketmore 76 shows strong disease resistance, with excellent resistance to scab and intermediate resistance to powdery and downy mildews as well as cucumber mosaic virus, contributing to steady fruiting over a long season. Under good growing conditions it develops quickly as a crop, though the plants themselves are considered late maturing. That later maturity means the harvest comes on strong in the middle of summer, rewarding growers with tender, sweet fruit once it arrives.

The Marketmore line traces to breeding work at Cornell University beginning in 1968, aimed at improving productivity and disease resistance in slicing cucumbers. Dr. Henry Munger of Cornell developed this particular selection, released in 1976 as Marketmore 76. It became an open-pollinated standard against which other slicing cucumbers are still measured.