[vineweevil1]

Someone gave me a cucumber plant and I don't know what it is or what I should be doing with it.

It looks very different to my female greenhouse cucumber that is climbing happily through my greenhouse.

It is in a bucket in the ghouse. It's leaves are mid green not dark and seem quite tightly packed together on it's 3ft length.

There are tons of small 1cm stumpy prickly yellowy green fruits that never come to anything.

The stem is flat and about 3cm wide, rather like a piece of liquorice......

So is it and outdoor one, do I need to trim it? prssume I leave any male flowers on....

[Jay Dubya]

Hi, sounds like a ridge cue which is outdoor. Planted it will send out laterals with 4-6in. cues on them, quite tasty but the skins are sometimes a bit tough.

[bonfire]

Sounds like a ridge. Get it out as soon as it's hard enough and give it a chance to get spread out. It's a risk to transfer it out of the bucket as they are not keen on root disturbance but it's cool and wet so you might have a chance.

I wouldn't choose to grow one in a bucket but someone might be able to advise you better on here.

If you're getting nothing from it now arguably you have little to lose.

My family think they taste much better than indoor ones.

[lovemyveg]

I was given a ridge cucumber which I have outside.  I did not realise until recently that these like to scramble along the ground and I spent a happy 45 mins doing a Blue Peter and made a rather nice frame for it out of bamboo canes and green netting.  It is climbing up there quite happily and has produced one cucumber, which is about 6" long.  Can anyone tell me how I can tell whether the fruit is ripe enough to pick?  It feels very hard to the squeeze so I don't want to pick too early.  This is the only cue on the plant, but ther have been quite a few flowers.  Maybe it would have been happier sprawling, but there is not the room for it to be unattached from its frame now.