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!

The best guess I can come up with, is provided by the Heirloom Seed
website [at] http://www.heirloomseeds.com/cucumbers.htm

I'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
http://www.myrljeffcoat.com

cucumber curl is usually a result of lack of pollination. the female
flower needs to be pollinated [at] 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.

On Wed, 24 May 2006 20:46:53 -0500, Sodbuster7! <here [at] thebottom.net>
wrote:

>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, 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!

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.