Why Are Cucumbers White In My Garden Beds? Is It Safe to Eat?

If you are a novice in growing cucumbers, you may be very worried when they do not work as expected! You may want to know: why are my cucumbers white in my garden beds? Can they still be eaten?

Like all home grown vegetables, your cucumber may not look like the product you bought in the store, but you should get a taste that can beat anything in the store!

Cucumber is a relatively easy crop to grow, but something can go wrong.

If your cucumbers are white, it is not necessarily the time to panic and throw them away. However, you may need to take some steps to restore your plants to health.

What color should my cucumber be?

First, check your seed bag - what color should your cucumber actually be?

Some, such as these delicious white miracle cucumbers, should be white. Other cucumbers may be much paler, or even yellow, than those bought in stores.

Many farmers like to preserve their own seeds, which is a good way to save money and improve the quality of seeds.

However, if your cucumber is cross pollinated with another cucumber, the seed may not be suitable for the type, thus providing you with a fruit of strange color, which may taste bitter.

If your research confirms that your cucumbers should be green, then it is time to further study this problem!

Why is my cucumber white?

There are three reasons why the cucumber fruit may turn white:

Fungal disease – usually powdery mildew or cotton leakage.

Bleaching due to insufficient sunlight

Excessive watering results in excessive moisture

Each of these problems has a very different solution, so we will look at them in more detail separately.

How to get rid of powdery mildew on cucumber?

Powdery mildew makes your cucumbers look like they are sprinkled with flour. This fungal disease can spread to the whole fruit and may also be seen on the leaves.

If your cucumber has powdery mildew, it is usually caused by high humidity and poor air circulation.

Fortunately, this is a fairly easy problem to solve!

One tablespoon of sodium bicarbonate solution diluted with one gallon of water should be sprayed on all cucumber plants twice a week.

Do not spray only the affected plants, as fungi may spread to other plants in any case.

You also need to make changes to the environment to prevent a recurrence of powdery mildew.

Make sure there is as much airflow as possible around the plant.

You may need to thin out some weaker plants to make room.

Water in the morning to dry the soil during the day.

Avoid splashing water on leaves and fruits.

Drip irrigation system is a worthwhile investment, which can reduce the humidity of planting area.

The peel fruit on cucumber rots or the cotton leaks

There is another type of fungal disease that can make cucumbers white. This is called pythium fruit decay, or cotton leakage.

Plants suffering from this fungal disease produce fruit with soft white fungal patches, sometimes resembling a bunch of cotton.

Pythium fruit rot can only be treated with chemical fungicides, although you can reduce the impact of the problem by improving air flow and reducing humidity levels.

How do you solve the problem of overwatering cucumbers?

If your white cucumber problem is caused by excessive water, it is not a big problem to be solved. Overwatering means that your cucumber plants cannot get enough phosphorus from the soil, causing them to turn pale green or white.

The first thing to do is to reduce the amount and frequency of watering. Many plants will wither in the daytime in hot temperatures, but if they come back to life in the cool night, they may not need watering.

How to repair the problem of cucumber bleaching

If your cucumber turns white due to insufficient light, you need to let the sun shine in!

Train your cucumbers to grow on a grid or pole and make sure they are not too crowded. You may need to evacuate some weaker plants or remove a few large leaves to allow light to enter.

Is white cucumber safe to eat?

Don't eat white cucumbers with powdery mildew or cotton leakage - they taste bad and may even be harmful!

If your cucumbers turn white due to blanching or over watering, they can be eaten safely, but may not be as delicious as you expected.