Cucumbers acting strange!

[Sodbuster7!]

Many of my cucumbers, after they shed the bloom are hooking, the ends are turning up like a fish hook.

The variety is Burpless, I have bought my plants at the same nursery for the past several years, they are planted where they were last two years. I have read about this somewhere, but can't find it.

Is this caused by a deficiency(mineral), or maybe an insect or even not using crop rotation(I have a special trellis built for them that makes it difficult to use rotation.

Thanks for your help--SodB!

[Myrl Jeffcoat]

The best guess I can come up with, is provided by the Heirloom Seed website @

'm wondering if the cucumbers you purchased from your nursery, may have been mis-labeled:

PAINTED SERPENT (Cucumis melo) 65 days - The slim, light green, ribbed fruits can grow 30-75" long, but best eaten at 15 inches. The unique fruits curl into snake-like shapes. Mild, delicious flavor!

Myrl Jeffcoat

[ricks555]

cucumber curl is usually a result of lack of pollination. the female flower needs to be pollinated @ 20 times to grow a long, straight cucumber. there is obviously not much you can do about this other than make sure you are not using any insecticides that will deter bees from doing their job. the other thing you need to be sure of is that you water regularly not intermittently. if there is a dry spell between rains, make sure you get some moisture in the soil.

[Sodbuster7!]

Myrl, Rick, I think you both may be right (except the pesticide ). I examined the fruit a little closer and it is definitely different than what I have been raising for several years.

On the polination, when my peach trees were in bloom there were thousands of bees, then we had a cold spell (during the bloom

24deg)until day before yesterday I had seen no bees in my garden. I don't know why, because there is a colony of honey bees living in the wall of my work shop, and they were working, but not my garden.

Thanks for the post- -SodB!

[Elliott33]

Hi, I left you a message on another group. Maybe you didn't see it. Hope it's OK if I leave you a message here. What was the information you wanted to share? You can e-mail me directly if you wish. I am interested. Thanks, Elliott PS-I agree about the destructive "flamers" there.