As beautiful as white cucumbers are, they can experience difficulty during their growing process – subjecting them to risks of pests and diseases.
Recently, I discovered that there are new species of cucumber seeds, which produce white cucumbers. Well, I don’t like them. I love to see my garden filled with green cucumbers at all times.
Several times, I have seen one or two white cucumbers and wondered what happened. Well, I found out why.
If you have gone through the same experience, then, you are in the right place for answers. In this article, we will discuss the 5 major causes of white cucumbers – especially if you planted green cucumber plant species.
Read on to find out more about this.
Why Are My Cucumbers Turning White? 5 Causes
In this section, we will discuss the 5 main reasons why your cucumbers are turning white.
Once you know the reasons, it’s not difficult to find out the solution.
Let me share some of the things I discovered about the “white cucumber” problem. This will change your entire gardening experience – leading you to a healthy cucumber harvesting season.
1 – Powdery Mildew
Have you heard about this fungal disease before? If you haven’t, then let me define what it means. This disease causes powdery growth on the surface of leaves, buds, flowers, fruits, and young shoots.
Powdery mildew has external symptoms. However, a lot of gardeners (especially the new and inexperienced ones) ignore these outward signs.
In the case of your cucumber, once you spot a powdery substance on your cucumbers, it is a sign that they might turn white when they ripen.
You need to be on the lookout for this sign. The moment you see a powdery substance on your cucumber, it’s a sign of exposure to this fungal disease.
2 – Lack of Proper Air Circulation
If your cucumbers are not exposed to adequate air, it creates a humid environment around them, which is conducive to the development of several diseases like powdery mildew.
This can also cause physiological changes to your cucumber fruits – leading to a lack of proper chlorophyll development, which results in pale or white cucumbers.
In addition to this, proper air circulation leads to uneven temperature distribution around the plant. It puts the plant under extreme stress, affecting its ability to properly produce and develop chlorophyll.
3 – Pests
If your cucumbers are exposed to too many pests, the probability of turning white or pale is at 80%.
This is why you need to constantly check your plant for pest infestation. One of such pests is the leafhopper. It sucks juices from plants – causing their leaves to turn yellow and tilt to the upside.
Pests can affect the cells that produce chlorophyll in your cucumber plants, causing them to turn yellow.
Get rid of these dangerous creatures by using pesticides. Furthermore, overfertilization can invite these pests. So, be careful of this as well.
4 – Exposure to excess moisture
I found out that cucumbers don’t like excess moisture. Yes! They love moist soils. However, the soil must be well-drained.
The roots of your cucumber plant won’t get enough oxygen from a constantly wet soil. Without the proper inflow of oxygen, certain nutrients will not be absorbed – leading to your cucumbers turning white.
5 – Blanching
While it is good to cover your cucumbers with foliage to prevent them from excessive sunlight, caution is advised. Don’t entirely cover the cucumber with straw or mulch.
It starves your plant of adequate sunlight and oxygen, which leads to the poor formation of chlorophyll. It’s one of the main reasons why cucumbers turn white.
