How to Prevent Crooked Cucumbers- myHOMEBOOK

April 11, 2025, 9:35 am | Read time: 2 minutes

Sometimes, you can find them in so-called savior bags in the supermarket, at farmers’ markets, and also in the garden when harvesting your own — crooked cucumbers. They taste just like straight cucumbers but look less attractive. But why do some cucumbers grow crooked in the first place? And can this be prevented?

A perfect cucumber has advantages. It is easier to peel, for example, and even slices can be placed on bread without any problems. However, crooked cucumbers taste just as good; they just don’t look quite as perfect. myHOMEBOOK spoke to Marie Diederich about this. She is known as a gardening influencer on social media under the name “Wurzelwerk” and also works as an author.

Why Cucumbers Sometimes Grow Crooked

Cucumbers are sensitive little things. Anyone who has planted cucumbers in their own garden will have noticed this. A little too little sun or forgetting to water them for a day — and the plants die. Sometimes, you can save them, but then the cucumbers are often bent and crooked.

“Cucumbers often become crooked because they are not equally well cared for everywhere — one side gets more water or nutrients and grows faster, while the other can’t keep up,” explains Marie Diederich. “It’s a bit like muscle training: if you only train one arm, it will eventually become crooked.” It can also happen that the cucumber doesn’t have enough space to grow because it is lying on the ground and bumping into something.

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What You Can Do About Crooked Cucumbers

Crooked cucumbers don’t taste worse just because they look different. Nevertheless, you want to avoid them growing crooked. Marie reveals a few tips to increase the likelihood of straight cucumbers:

To ensure that cucumbers grow nice and straight, you should water them regularly.
You should also give the cucumbers fertilizer so that they get all the nutrients they need.
A trellis can help so that the cucumbers have enough space to grow and hang. Because they don’t bump into anything, they tend to grow straight.

This article is a machine translation of the original German version of MYHOMEBOOK and has been reviewed for accuracy and quality by a native speaker. For feedback, please contact us at info@myhomebook.de.