In keeping up with my garden posts, I have had some questions from readers about the exploding cucumbers.
They are a packet of seeds that we found through our UK seed company, The Real Seed Catalogue, that are what they say they are – exploding cucumbers. And we got them just for the novelty and fun of it.
Basically, they grow to the size of a small cucumber but when they ripen the slightest touch will cause the seeds to shoot out, up to 15 feet away! But these can be eaten or pickled as any other cucumber variety you would eat. Reading the “Health Warning” on the website totally sold my husband on putting these at the top of our list of seeds to order from this company….
HEALTH WARNING.
DANGER OF EYE INJURY! HARD SEED IS EJECTED AT GREAT SPEED.
DO NOT HOLD RIPE FRUIT NEAR FACE.
HARVEST FRUIT AFTER IT HAS OPENED.
DO NOT ALLOW CHILDREN TO PLAY WITH FRUIT.
We know this sounds silly,
but we recommend that
YOU WEAR EYE PROTECTION WHILE HARVESTING AND PROCESSING FRUIT.
We didn’t look into them any further than this, but we were thrilled to be expecting these seeds and doing everything in our power to get the seedlings to sprout and the sproutlings to grow to proper plants that would flourish in our garden.
Once the seeds arrived, we found out a little bit more about them… not only are they highly volatile, but they are also extremely tall-growing, viney plants that must be trellised and placed in an area of the garden where you are unlikely to brush against them or other plants won’t bother them. Here is the information that the catalogue provided us with: “The Fat Baby have always been a great hit both with us and everyone who has tried them. So we were intrigued to find that they have close relative known as the Exploding Cucumber, whose Latin name is – quite aptly – “Cyclanthera explodens”. We’ve been after these for ages and ages – and finally managed to get hold of some seed last year, and they are now growing well outdoors and in the polytunnel.
Anyways, these grow similarly to the Achocha – a tendrilly climbing vine . The fruit are similar, except having an even weirder shape, and when mature, they burst open at the slightest touch, flinging their seeds out across the garden!
Eating use is the same as Achocha; the fruit can be used small (1/2 inch) in salads or mature (1 inch, exploded) cooked. No need to deseed them first as they do this for you at the slightest provocation! They are of course also an excellent thing to enter in your local horticultural show for the ‘unusually shaped vegetable’ category.
We are sorry that the packet is smaller than we would like, and the price is higher than we would like too. However, this due to the obvious difficulties involved in seed collection . . . . . . .”
I managed to find some more photos and information on exploding cucumbers and I cam across this website, http://www.tradewindsfruit.com, where you can order the seeds in the United States if this has got you itching to try your hand at these cucumbers as well! At any rate, the following images are taken from their website and give you a bit more insight into what they look like, how big the plants grow and just how much fun these will be if we can get them to grow properly! As with the rest of our seeds, we started them in the really warm closet until they sprouted and then baby these precious plants until we are ready to purchase some eye protection for harvesting them!
“A fast-growing vine with long tendrils. Grows best with support, e.g. a trellis or arbor, but can be left to grow along the ground. Once roots are established the vine will grow in all directions, sending shoots to 10-15 feet long. Very small yellow flowers are formed in clusters with male and female flowers forming separately on the same plant. Female flowers are followed by spiny fruits growing to 2″. When mature the fruits show a subtle color change to green-white and pop open, expelling their seeds several feet away. Though unlikely, care should be taken near maturing fruits to avoid seeds being shot into ones eye. Grows in pretty much any soil type.”
near-ripe fruit
flower cluster
fruit right after exploding of seeds
Do you want to see how they “EXPLODE?!” I tracked down a great YouTube video by a person that has picked a ripe cucumber and then harvested it! See it here! And here is another one, the noise right at the explosion is the gasp of the person harvesting the cucumber, these dont make any noise when they “explode.”
Now we just sit and wait for the cucumber plants to mature for transfer to their permanent home. Don’t you worry, we will take care to document each step of this journey, as exciting as it all is!
