It's been about 25 years since I've grown cucumbers but I never remember seeing a plant with leaves this big and so many blossoms.  I actually had to start clipping the ends of the vine to stop the plant from growing because it has started taking over everything.  Right now the one plant has 13 cucumbers between 1" and 6" long on it in addition to all the other blossoms.  The tomato cage is one that is 54 inches for a frame of reference. The raised bed is only about 5" deep of material that I added several years ago.  Top soil and composted manure but really nothing since then.  The cucumber is actually a voluntary plant, not sure how it even got in that garden because this is the first year that I've grown cucumbers here.  The others that I planted are not doing 1/10th as well but they were planted in poorer soil.

































 












The leaves are huge, over 10 inches.











It looks like 4 to 5 blossoms for each location















There are 3 cucumbers growing from this one spot and 4th in the background.


















The other plant in poor soil looks like a dwarf with the largest leaves under 8 inches.  Not to mention that it has been growing for at least 5 weeks longer than the volunteer plant.

















Anyone know why the smaller plants cucumbers are turning orange?  Not yellow, like they are over ripe but orange.













 

I think it is probably a smaller variety and they just got to big.  If it is a volunteer as well, and the seeds came from a hybrid cucumber, they don't always grow true.

 
The orange cucumber came from the smaller plant in poor soil, which is the plant that I actually planted.  The cucumber is not woody at all like it is over ripe.  In fact I was worried I picked it too soon.  Would too much nitrogen in the soil cause this?


Here is a link to the cucumber seed.  It came as a free gift when I ordered my tomato seeds.  Reading the description it is a "double yield" variety which would explain all the blossoms of the huge plant.  Still not sure how the seed got into the garden though.


https://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?pID=02011

Nice cucumber plant! The leaves are a bit bigger than what I'm used to seeing. Maybe it's just a trait of the variety you planted. Although, the plant in the second picture was a little wilted. Either it's really hot out or the plant needs more water. Here in Texas I cover my cucumbers with agri fabric material for shade, otherwise the Texas sun will scorch them.

Just curious, what do you mean when you say it's a voluntary plant? Never heard that before...

Volunteer means that it grew from littered seed. As in he didn't plant it.

This also is likely why the cuke is orange, cross pollinated with something. Other than that it looks great. If it tastes good I'd make some hot pickles with it.

We planted 6 bush pickle cucumber plants in our garden. Every night for the past week or so I've brought in anywhere between 5-10 nice sized cucumbers, and it looks like I've barely made a dent in their harvest potential.

 
The orange cucumbers come from the plant that I actually planted.  I believe I ended up planting it in nearly straight compost with a little dirt mixed in.  That is why I'm wondering if it is too much nitrogen that is giving it the color.



I have a theory on the volunteer plant.  When I planted the cucumber seeds I filled 3 containers with seeds.  Only 1 of the 3 containers grew seeds.  I had a few left over containers of dirt after I had used up all the seeds and just left them sitting as dry dirt.  When I took the plants growing indoors and planted them outdoors I cleaned up all the old containers tossed the dirt in the bed.  Perhaps I mislabeled the containers and the cucumber seeds were just sitting in dry dirt until I tossed them outside.  Still that was mid-April when I put the dirt outside and the cucumber didn't grow until a month later.  The volunteer cucumbers look similar to the one the one I planted and it is the only seed that I have had on the property.  

just found this on orange cukes.

 
Thanks for finding that article; however, what they describe isn't the case.  The cukes never were yellow, they were green green with some orange, and orange.   They also aren't bitter. woody, spongy, or terrible tasting.  I did a side by side taste of a green one from a different plant and the orange one.  The orange cuke had whiter flesh but the taste was the same.

hmm. thats cool.

I watched the latest batch of cucumbers grow and change color.  Day one they were still growing, day 3 they didn't seem to get any bigger and started to get the yellow lines, day 5 about 1/4 of the cucumber was orange.  As I said, it's been 20+ years since I grew cucumber.  I didn't know they could ripen that fast.  There is also something in the soil of the smaller plant that pushes it to the orange color faster.  The larger plant takes twice as long to go from yellow to orange.  

Can anyone tell me what type of leaf blight is on the smaller plant pictured above?  It has now spread to the large plant and almost every leaf has multiple circular spots.  The cucumber production on both plants has nearly stopped despite plenty of blossoms.  I'm wondering if the blight is causing the blossoms to fall off before they get pollinated.  

Any cucumber beetles around the plant? They turned by cucs orange last time I had a bad infestation.

The only thing I have to say is, no matter how much you may dislike pickles they are, however, the only thing you can do with cyooocummmberrrrs...

I saw a couple beetles but don't think they were cucumber beetles.  Nothing has really eaten the leaves or attacked the plant.

 
Any good pickle recopies?  I prefer the cold kept Klausen pickles.  Not sure how they make them.   I'm sitting on over a dozen cucs that are going to go bad if I don't do something with them soon.

Here are some new pictures.  It such a shame what happened to the amazing looking plant in my first set of pictures.    







This is what the nearly 11 inch leaf in the first set of pictures turned into.

Angular Leaf Spot or Anthracnose?

ETA:  This is on the volunteer correct?

 
Yes that is the volunteer.  The one I planted suffers from the same problem.  It started at the bottom leaves and worked to the top of the plants.


It looks mainly like Alternaria Leaf Blight.  Reading up on it warm temperatures with lots of rain and humidity are ideal conditions for it to grow.  That is what we have had the last month.  


Anthracnose and Alternaria Leaf Blight are easily controlled with weekly protectant fungicides such as chlorothalonil and mancozeb as long as they are applied prior to the arrival of the pathogen.  

I guess I need to read up on chlorothalonil and mancozeb for next year.  

I guess I really need to read up on treating bacteria and fungus that can attack the garden.  The massive plant become completely covered with Alternaria Leaf Blight and stopped producing any cucumbers.  I ended up pulling the plant and getting rid of it so the Alternaria Leaf Blight couldn't grow and spread.






From this













To this  







 

I get orange skinned cukes just before the plant dies or is dieing.  Maybe because the leaves and stems aren't moving enough chlorophyl to the fruit?

What is the treatment?



 

 
There are a lot of preventative measures which can be taken.  For example crop rotation is good one, if you have space.  This garden location has no space to rotate.  Ideally you would rotate in a plant that isn't affected by it for a couple years so the spores die off.  The spores stay in the soil and can overwinter.  The next step would be to cover the soil so that the leaves don't touch it or the rain causes the soil to splash on the leaves.  I noticed that with my tomato plants this year.  I didn't mulch them as soon as I transplanted them and any leaf that touched the ground or got dirt on it became infected.


Warm wet weather causes it to grow.  While rain can't be controlled the plants can be planted in an area that get a lot of sun and wind to dry them off quickly.  The summer here has been constant rain and humidity, the worst I've seen in 14 years.


Otherwise it is a weekly treatment of a fungicide before it can attack the plant.  The only product that I've found with the recommended fungicide is this although any general garden fungicide should work.  There are several organic products that seem to use a beneficial soil bacterium, Neem oil, or other safe substances.



Bonide Chemical PT Mancozeb Flowable Fungicide

https://www.amazon.com/Bonide-Chemical-Mancozeb-Flowable-Fungicide/dp/B000BWZ9JO