Bright Orange Cucumbers... What Is Going On???

[Crystal Clarity]

I've been googling; trying to figure this out. I found several gardening forums from 2008 and 2009 with quite a few people asking the same question. People w/presumably far more gardening experience them me. This is my first go at it.

At any rate I googled "orange cucumbers" and several of these forums came up, but no one seemed to have answers. Some people suggested that they might be overripe. But in my case the cukes began this way! And the people on the other forums implied the same thing in their questions as well.

I kid you not, these cucumbers are about the color of a tangerine and round(ish) like a squash. Has anyone here ever heard of or seen this? :shrug:

I did find one possibility... There was a pic and info about 'Chinese Yellow Cucumbers' and some were similar looking. But that's not what I bought or thought I bought. Here's a link to that type of cuke. http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/Chinese_Yellow_Cucumber-1396-129.html

I'd appreciate any info or thoughts on this that you folks may have to offer. Thanks everyone! :-)

[Inchworm]

1. I grew a freaky cuke a few years back

and it was determined that my cuke cross-pollinated with one of the other squash I had planted near.

A possibility?

:hi:

[Crystal Clarity]

2. Thanks Inchworm

I love your DU name BTW. Very cute, especially for someone who posts in the Gardening Group, lol! :-)

But no, all I'm growing are peas, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, these weird cucumbers and catnip for my cat. No squash so I don't think it's a cross-pollination thing. Interesting that you should mention that though, because the OP of this Gardening forum (comments and link below) thought at first that might be his/her(?) problem. He/she posted a question similar to mine below but mentioned something about cross bred seeds.

I should have put this in my OP so you guys don't think I'm the only person off-my-rocker... lol! But thanks again Inchworm. I hope your garden is coming along well. :hi:

Note: Below are a few clips from one of the websites I've found where this question was asked. I selected just a few and bolded the OP and one comment I thought interesting.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg0622430932226.html



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Posted by mecasa (My Page) on Mon, Jun 16, 08 at 22:43


I swear on a bible, my cucumbers are bright orange. I talked to the nurseryman I bought the plants from but he's as stumped as I am. All he can figure out is that he got some cross bred seeds this season.
Half the people in town are growing bright orange cucumbers.


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Posted by mecasa (My Page) on Tue, Jun 17, 08 at 0:32

I googled the cuc you mentioned and it's a standard green cucumber so I have no idea what you're seeing because orange and green are not the same color, ask any Irishman.
These cucs are orange right from the start


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Posted by sandra_christie 7 (My Page) on Tue, Jun 17, 08 at 7:12

Same thing happened to me last year, quite disturbing. Couldn't get anyone to eat 'em. They were orange right from when they were quite small too. I'm waiting to see what happens this year.


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Posted by shebear z8 NTex (My Page) on Tue, Jun 17, 08 at 8:46

It appears there's an orange cucumber breeding program going on in the US. They're looking to get beta carotene into pickles. Maybe rouges are getting out..........those pesky insects cause all kinds of problems.

[beac]

4. Here's an article on the orange cuke breeding:

http://www.utne.com/2007-12-13/Science-Technology/The-Future-of-Pickles-is-Orange.aspx

Maybe there's also some Lemon Cucumber genes in there, hence the round shape? :shrug:

[Crystal Clarity]

5. Thanks for the article beac

I think that might be it... based on what the article says and what the I've learned from some of the other sites. All is not lost though. I just tried one about 5 minutes ago that I had picked yesterday and chilled. It tasted just like any other fresh cucumber. Yum! :9

So who cares if it looks weird and hey, I may be getting some beta carotene benefits too! If I can figure out how to upload pics (a project for this weekend most likely) I'll post a few pics. Thanks again! :-)

[beac]

6. Have you contacted the place where you bought the seeds/plants to see if

anyone else has reported the same phenomenon? Or maybe the seed supplier (if it was seeds)?

Glad that the cukes are still edible. I'll bet they'd look pretty in a salad. :)

[Crystal Clarity]

8. I've no idea of who the supplier is...

On a fanciful whim of summer, during the late winter doldrums, I bought the seeds from a liquidation warehouse store that buys and sells all sorts of stuff. I got those, my catnip seeds and some daffodil bulbs there. Who knew that at least some of the cukes and all of the catnip would actually survive from seeds into actual plants despite my lack of knowledge of this sort of thing...

I kept the packages and followed their directions. The problem is, I've no idea where the seed pac's are now, and I think both seeds were from the same company (not sure about the bulbs). Once I put them in the ground, I figured they were good to go.

I doubt I threw them away though... they've got to be around here somewhere. :freak: <<< moi.

As far as anyone else around here observing the same thing? I haven't heard of it... The serious gardeners, I doubt, get their seeds under such cheep and dubious circumstances as I have done. LOL!

Thanks for your help and info though beac. You're the best! :-)

[MajorChode]

3. I think it has to be either cross pollination or a seed mixup

If you bought your seeds commercially, it's possible they mislabeled them.

[Crystal Clarity]

7. You're probably right MajorChode

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing I got some seeds from a source that has something to do with a recent effort to get beta carotene into pickling cukes for nutritional reasons. I know how silly this sounds... :tinfoilhat: lol, but read beac's article that he posted to me in this thread (if curious). So... perhaps a seed mix-up like you suggested ???

At any rate, despite how weird they look, they taste just fine... pretty yummy actually, so I'm ok w/it.
I may post some pics of them (if I can figure out how) just so you guys can see them. They ARE pretty funny looking! :-)