Ruined cucumbers

[Autumn]

Ugh, I am so upset. First a little background. We have 3 separate gardens, in 2 locations (One large one in our backyard, and two on a 20-acre piece of land we own in the country, about 40 minutes from us.)

On the land in the country, a friend of my husband also plants some stuff. He helps my hubby work the garden, since it is close to their workplace and they can sneak off at lunch time and get some work done. This man rarely listens to my hubby's advice about planting, when and where and how, and then regrets it. His stubborness never affected us until now.

Hubby has been bringing home cucumbers for 2 weeks. One of the ones I tried tasted awful and I threw it out without knowing what was wrong with it. Tonight he brought home some more and I tried one and YUCK!!! I tried another one and BLEECH!!! A third one and ICK!!! Then I looked into the bag and noticed that quite a few of the cucumbers had grown with their tips curling under. It hit us then: they had crossed with the yellow squash that the other guy planted too close to our cukes, even though hubby had warned him.

NOW! What can be done? Should it all go in the compost pile? Could we pickle them? Would pickling kill the strange taste?

At least we will have some from the other garden, so all is not lost, but I am still disappointed.

[VeganVixen]

YES , Our cukes look awful (pale and taste YUCKY) .......SO thats whats been happening (we have squash next to them) ...hmmmm , thanks

[rawpriestess]

Oh, I am so sorry,

We always plant our cucumbers in an entirely separate garden than our squash, I never thought to ask Dragggon why, he just does this. I assumed it was so he could tell them apart, now I know.

I would try pickling them, what do you have to lose? but some sallt, spices and vinegar, We picled zucchini and it was good, wasn't crispy though, kind of mushy, but the taste was great.

You might try this.

[Doe]

Our cukes are doing the same thing. Don't have any squash planted. There are cantaloupes nearby, could they cross? The cukes aren't big enough to eat yet but the blossom end of all of them are shriveled and curled. I thought it was the kind of seed my friend got.

Actually a cantaloupe/cuke would probably tast better than a squash/cuke. The cantaloupes look fine and are the size of baseballs.


Teri

[Autumn]

Teri,

Wow, a friend of mine mentioned this exact thing tonight when I told her about our squash/cukes. She said never to plant cukes near cantaloupe either!

This same friend said that if the produce is not good enough to eat raw, it won't be good to eat pickled. I dunno. I might try a small batch and see what happens. Can't hurt, right?

[Doe]

Guess I've got a choice before any more blooms set which to pull up. At least that way we'll save one. Actually the lopes look fine.

[avanderland]

I'm so jealous, even of your strange cucumbers... I help run a gardne here at school and not a single one of our cucumber plants ever sprouted. Le sigh, the perils of gardening... It's always something! Of course, even the home mishaps are prob better than what comes out the generic grocery store!

[VeganVixen]

[QUOTE=avanderland]I'm so jealous, even of your strange cucumbers... I help run a gardne here at school and not a single one of our cucumber plants ever sprouted. Le sigh, the perils of gardening... It's always something! Of course, even the home mishaps are prob better than what comes out the generic grocery store![/QUOTE]


I dont think so , these cukes are REALLY yucky !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Autumn]

It's funny, I used to not like cukes so much, but ever since we started growing our own, I eat them like potato chips. That is, when they are good!

[angelandarose]

Ah poop, how close is too close when planing cukes and mellons???? Anyone know? We have ours planted on each end, and tomato's, beans, lettus and corn and between the two... think they will be ok?

thanks!
Angie

[Jodi]

In searching for the reason the leaves of my cucumber plants are turning yellow, I found this site.

About cucumbers.

It says cukes do not cross-pollinate with melons. Not sure if they are right, didn't answer my yellow-leaves question.



Jodi

[Doe]

Glad I didn't pull the cuke plants. They taste just fine, even if they do look weird. They have very little seeds and watery part in the middle. The cantaloupes are rotting before they mature from the daily rain.
Teri

[Autumn]

Teri,
I'm glad yours weren't ruined after all. Ours were, but we have others from another section that are just wonderful and I've been picklin' and munching for 2 weeks now.