Prickly spikes on cucumber? 3 August 2009 at 11:16AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 10 replies 17.2K views

KittyCat1

I've got a marketmore cucumber which has about five cucumbers growing from it,getting bigger every day,but they have little prickly spikes growing on them

Is this normal??I've never grown cucumbers before so was quite surprised to find these prickly things on the cucumber.Will they disappear as the cucumbers grow bigger?

robnye

yes, once the cucumber has filled out along the whole length, cut it of and then rub over the little spikes, they will fall off

ive had 3 of my already, went away last week and come back to another 8..... woopee

ALIBOBSY

Only had one cuke of mine yet, but OH and kids said it was yummy (I'm not the biggest cuke fan). We had the little prickles and I was suprised as well lol. The things you learn when you grow your own .

Got a second cuke on the way yay.

ali x

KittyCat1

Thanks for the replies.

Was getting worried as i've never seen that before on cucumbers,thought they were some kindof weird variety :rotfl:

tripod2000

The supermarkets don't think we can handle prickly cucumbers so we only see the smooth, uniform, bland and tasteless varieties.

parsonswife8

Ours also had little prickles.
They just rub off if you run a sharp knife blade from top to bottom all around, before washing them.

rosie383

I only have lots of what look like wee tiny cucumbers behind some nice yellow flowers. Do you think they will eventually get bigger? They are being very slooooooow!

Farway

rosie383 wrote: »

I only have lots of what look like wee tiny cucumbers behind some nice yellow flowers. Do you think they will eventually get bigger? They are being very slooooooow!

They certainly will, just give them time & water

Trishh_2

My baby marketmore look like gherkins :rotfl:

A._Badger

'Ridge' (ie outdoor) cucumbers do tend to have small spines on them. Greenhouse ones don't.

The ones you buy in a supermarket will have been grown indors - hence no spines.

Hope that helps.

Sazbo

trishh wrote: »

My baby marketmore look like gherkins :rotfl:

Mine look like gherkins too! My o/h said exactly that the other day. And they have prickles - the cucumber, not my o/h :rotfl: Forget which variety they are tho - one that's good for containers I think. We've had a couple so far and they are delicious - as already said; taste totally different from the bland, pappy supermarket offerings.

I didn't know they had prickles either:o Amazing what you can learn - I love MSE! :money:

Sazzy xxx