First year that I am actually getting cucumbers and I picked one a couple days ago that was greenish on top, but after picked noticed it was mostly yellow on bottom. Will it ripen like a tomato if I leave it on the counter or out on the deck rail? Will the yellow ever turn green, it does not seem to be changing at all.
Once picked cucumbers do not ripen... however there is no reason you can't eat a young cuke, actually they taste better and are more tender than the ones picked later... the more you pick the more your plant will produce, so pick often and don't let cukes get too large, no more than 4" is perfect. And the early harvested ones are best for pickling too. Cucumbers are actually the plant's fruit, that's why they are filled with seeds, the plant is mightily attempting to reproduce and will keep trying by producing more fruit filled seeds for as long as as you keep picking before the seeds mature. Cucumber skin color indicates absolutely nothing... why are you so hung up on skin color, are you racist?
I don't think I was racist, not towards humans. Fruits and vegetables, yes skin colour does matter to me. I'm not sure what that makes me.
The cucumbers I'm getting are very large, but aren't you supposed to let them fill out? The nub or whatever it is called is not filled out. There are three pretty big ones. I guess I will go pick a couple. I don't really eat that much cucumber. Once in a while in a salad or on a sandwich.
The peanuts were all gone from the front yard this afternoon, so I went to throw a few more out in hopes bargaining with the devil(s) I may have some tomatoes. Little bastard was on the front lawn, and it stared at me. I threw the peanuts at it and it ran away a bit, but then came back and ate the peanuts. Bastard better not try and make friends with me.
Ripeness does not apply to cucumbers and zuccinis. We eat them immature, that is before the seeds fully develop because we don't like seeds in our food and the flavour can be better when they are young. A gherkin is a very immature cucumber. This is the opposite of (say) melons or pumpkins where the flavour reaches a peak when the seeds are mature. Judge your cukes by flavour and texture not colour. If you want to save seeds of cucumbers you have to let the seeds mature by whcih time the flesh will be rather watery and tastless.
David
If they are growing on the ground (not climbing), they will usually end up looking like that.
Ignore the yellow.
Actually, you probably don't want a cucumber fully ripe. They are huge, yellow, somewhat tough things. I've read suggestions to let some ripen and then roast them (like a hard squash), but I've never tried that.
Last year I planted things way too close together and several cucumbers hid long enough to mostly ripen. They were yellow-green and nearly the size of an American football. They went directly into the compost pile.
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