spiny cucumbers

[strawhat]

hi all,

a. some of my cucumbers are ready to eat, but thier outer surface is "spiney", the skin actually has small thorns. obviously, we have to peel of the cucumbers before we eat them. the inside is great, looks regular and is tasty.
what are these "thorns"? is it the variety (I bought organic seeds in the nursery)? is it a disease?
b. is it preferable to water the cucumbers less towrds the harvest so they won't absorb to much water and be soft in the inside?



thanks a bunch

[Grey]

I think there is a variety that is "spiked" (pretty sure I have seen photos) but I have only grown cukes once, so I can't help you on the critter question.

I'll bet someone else on here knows tho.

[underthemagnolia]

There is a spiny or horned cucumber. Doesn't look like good eats to me from the pictures both of the interior and exterior of the fruit.

Do you have pictures of your produce you can share? I'd love to see them.

[strawhat]

unforunately I don't have pics. I'm probably the last person on earth w/o a digital camera. anyway - they taste great. and I did buy the seeds from a good organic-seeds company....
any more suggestions?

[strawhat]

OK, I got it all solved. for those who are intersted in taxonomy:
my "spiny" weird looking cucumber is a cultvated cucumber strain named Cucumis sikkim (Cucumber sikkim); the original sikkim cucmber came from Nepal.
the so called "Horned cucumber" that was mentiond here is the Cucumis metuliferus which is a tropical and southern African plant and is much more weird looking.
take a look at the pictures. both strains are shown.
well, you don't realy know what you get when you buy "cucumber seeds"...

[url]https://members.lycos.nl/ottens123/newpage2.html[/url]

[opabinia51]

It appears that you have solved your own problem. But yes, some cukes are spiked and some are not.