While I’ve been getting a nice number of cucumbers this year, some of them have been oddly yellow and quite bland tasting. My first thought is that I left them on the vine too long, but these oddballs started out yellow, and stayed yellow.

I found some interesting ideas as to why this might be happening.

• Not enough sun– very possible. I have them growing on a cucumber trellis that shares space with a large zucchini plant. Possibly some of the leaves are casting too many shadows onto the new cucumbers. For a variety of reasons, I think I should separate the squash and cucumber plants next year.
• Too much water– less likely since other cucumbers are nice and green on the same vines.
• Over-ripe– not likely. They seem to start out yellow and stay yellow.
• Cross-pollinating with summer squash–interesting idea. Could be possible since I have squash in the same garden. Zucchini is right next to it and summer squash a few feet away. Not sure how I could tell if this is the case, but it is part of the reason to move the squash to a new, larger space next year.