Sometimes cukes that are too old will go flabby. Did you use really fresh cukes? And slices that are too thin are also prone to going soft. Use fresh spices?

But usually it is a result of too weak a salt brine or too high temps while fermenting.

Would need much more details on how you did them to be able to know for sure.

Dave

Dave, many thanks for your response. I used cukes I picked that morning from the garden. They were of varying sizes from about pinky finger size to a bit bigger than thumb size. Washed them well. The brine solution,using pickling salt, was about three tablespoons to a quart of water also fresh dill heads from the garden, whole garlic cloves, peppercorns and grape leaves over the top of it all. Covered with a plate and a weight (which is a gallon glass jar filled with water). The temp was never extremely warm in the area I kept them although temps at night definately were lower. What would be too warm?? I removed the overflow the scum, bloom, yuck, whatever you want to call it but never actually took the weight off to look in there. Our water is a bit hard even though it is filtered. Hmmmmmm... can't think of anything else that might be a variable. I want to try again, as there are more cukes ready but I'm hesitant due to my first attempt. Any further advice?

Did you trim off the ends? Prime source of bacteria. Too warm is anything over 70 degrees. 3 T of salt to 1 quart of water is low salt and that is the usual cause of soft fermented pickles. Should be about 1/4 cup of salt to 1 quart. No vinegar? Grape leaves are also a source of bacteria. The instructions below are for Fermented Dills from NCHFP. You might want to use it instead. What is the source of your recipe? Old family favorite?

Check out the Troubleshooting Guide on fermented pickle problems.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Fermented Dills

The proper amount of salt and water are also important, as it well as very fresh cukes. Storage may need refrigeration to keep them better, or they may just keep going until they break down in brine. The water quakity is also a big factor is its hard water, or water that has minerals and iron in it. Grape leaves to me are useless in keeping cukes crisp. Tried it several years ago, with vinegar based pickles and they were as soft as without it after a year.

Thanks all. No, I did not trim off the blossom end and no vinegar either. Going from the recipe I used thought the brine was enough. I've been looking at a book called Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. I was going by his recipe and suggestions. I'm going to use the recipe from the NCHFP this time, I'm gonna get this down! Saw in another thread a suggestion to just chop/grind the sad soft little pickles into relish. We aren't accustomed to eating relish, but what the heck!

Yes, cutting off the blossom end is VERY important!! This end contains enzymes that can spoil a brine and make unpredicatble results. I usually cut both ends off when I make half sour fermented cukes. Its a way to get the brine inside much quicker, as they just sit out 2-3 days, and then the fridge. The vinegar I use is a tiny amount and is added only after they are placed in the fridge. It helps slow down any further fermenting if it were to continue under cold storage. Even though there are millios of pickle recipes, and some written by note worthy people, they still can be of questionable nature to the home canner and current safety standards. Yes, you can make a relish. I have several huge overgrown picklers (one weighs almost 2 pounds!), that will get cut open, seeds removed (tough!) and onions added. It will be a sweet pickle relish, with white and cider vinegar, Splenda, celery seed, mustard seed, and a bit of dill seeds. I also like to add a dash of green food coloring to give it the 'commercial look'.

With the proper ratio of salt to water (not hard water) you shouldn't need vinegar during fermentation because the fermentation process itself produces lactic acid. A little vinegar is sometimes added as a "fail-safe" (for example in the link I've provided the fermented pickle recipe includes 1/4 cup).

It sounds as if you have a combination of issues; under the circumstances soft pickles is a good outcome. You could have ended up with smelly mush.

To summarize:

1. Hard water
2. Improper preparation of cucumbers (removing blossom end is critical)
3. Insufficient salt (best to go by weight and use only canning and pickling salt)

It's great to see you're not giving up. It can take a while to figure out all the do's and don'ts.

I'm linking to a document that provides some good basic information and an excellent fermented pickle recipe. Also there are loads of threads with a ton of information on this forum. Just do a search.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Homemade Pickles and Relishes

The vinegar would only be added in a half sour and its meant to halt the fermenting. If used in a fuly fermented pickle it would prevent proper lacic acid from forming. Under salted brine, the cukes will turn to mush very quickly. I even had a couple of raw cukes in my fridge that were mush after a long storage (in the hospital).
Lots of my garden food was lost due to teh long stay. Just picked the rest of a few small grape tomatoes, as the plants were totally dead. Nearby, sweet red peppers ripen, than quickly rottted. I had to throw out about half a bushel of pepper 'mush' and brown seeds. Don't know why that happened, and must do research on why its so bad for the peppers. Was hoping to pickle sweet red peppers, but barely have a quart right now, and the weather is getting quite cool.

I've made those fermented pickles and they turned out just fine. It's not sufficient vinegar to halt fermentation.

Carol

i had one of three go 9 days and it was great, then i didn't get around to stopping the next till 15-17 days. gross, they were all slimy, i didn't use enough salt and it was a bit warmer than normal :(