Growing Exotic Cucumbers: Eight-Angled, Carosello & Cucumber-Melons

It made it in time after all!

My eight-angled cucumber!

@MarVal Marina, look! How interesting!

Busy with plums and tomatoes, I completely stopped paying attention to the corner where the eight-angled cucumber is growing. And it’s already producing fruit! I planted a single transplanted seedling. Two cucumbers grew. Taste-wise, it reminds me of a very juicy cucumber with crispy flesh.

Ruzhana said:
My eight-angled cucumber! … Taste-wise, it reminds me of a very juicy cucumber with crispy flesh.

Olga, congratulations!

Mine were wiped out a long time ago by stink bugs and powdery mildew. There was a lot of fruit set, and at first, it produced very well, but not for long…

I wanted to grow a few to their absolute maximum size, but I only managed to get two: 1,300g (2.8 lbs) and 1,000g (2.2 lbs). They are already getting a bit soft; it’s time to cut them open, save the seeds, and eat them.

MarVal said:
I only managed to get two: 1,300g and 1,000g. They are already getting a bit soft, time to cut them open…

Oh, somehow I didn’t think to weigh them! And I already ate it. By myself! Didn’t share with anyone.

What do the ripe, seeded cucumbers taste like? Do they differ from the small ones?

Ruzhana said:
What do the ripe, seeded cucumbers taste like? Do they differ from the small ones?

Yes, they differ. I feel like it’s some kind of hybrid with a melon. The seeds “flow out” with the placenta just like from a ripe melon, and the flesh becomes soft and juicy like a melon, but it isn’t sweet.

MarVal said:
Yes, they differ. I feel like it’s some kind of hybrid with a melon… the flesh becomes soft and juicy like a melon, but not sweet.

Are you talking about Ogurdynya (Cucumber-Melon) or something else?

Sansanych58 said:
Are you talking about Ogurdynya (Cucumber-Melon) or something else?

Something else. This is the Eight-Angled Imperial Cucumber.

Olya, here is the inside view, exactly like a melon.

MarVal said:
Olya, here is the inside view, exactly like a melon.

Thanks, Marina! Good to know that if it accidentally overripens, it’s not a disaster at all.

Ruzhana said:
Good to know that if it accidentally overripens, it’s not a disaster at all.

It’s actually quite tasty, plus you get to save seeds.

MarVal said:
Yes, they differ. I feel like it’s some kind of hybrid with a melon… the flesh becomes soft and juicy like a melon, but not sweet.

Hi. Marina, what you are describing looks like an Armenian cucumber, Carosello. And the photo matches. They are probably close relatives.

Olga, you might not like it when it’s fully ripe. It’s not that it tastes bad, but personally, I feel like it’s missing something. It has the texture and smell of a melon, but no taste. It’s unusual and weird. However, I did like the young, green Carosellos. I’m not a big cucumber fan, so for me, they were super yummy! Just very hairy.

Malanka said:
It’s not that it tastes bad, but personally, I feel like it’s missing something. It has the texture and smell of a melon, but no taste. It’s unusual and weird.

Hello everyone.

Exactly. It’s like with Ficifolia (Malabar gourd/Fig-leaf gourd). You cut it open, and the juice just squirts everywhere. You take a bite, and it tastes like absolutely nothing. It’s only good for saving seeds to use as rootstock for grafting. But it produces so much fruit that other pumpkins can’t hold a candle to it. Plus, it’s trouble-free. You plant it, come back in the autumn, and harvest.

Malanka said:
Olya, you might not like it when it’s fully ripe… I did like the young, green Carosellos… Just very hairy.

I’m a simple and trusting person. It says “eight-angled cucumber” on the label—I believe that it IS an eight-angled cucumber! 😂 If I had planted several varieties to compare, maybe I would have seen the difference. But as it is… My two little cucumbers were 200g (7 oz) maximum. I see no point in waiting for maturity. We ate them and checked the box “we grew this.”

Just imagine: growing seedlings, watering and feeding them all summer, just to get a couple of little fruits at the end of August. This isn’t a food product; it’s a collector’s item!

Apparently, our intense heat is considered cool weather for Marina down south. Why else wouldn’t it grow well? Or you need to start seedlings earlier and plant them in the greenhouse later.

Overall, I love regular cucumbers. And they are easier to grow. Next season I’m planning a new experiment in the greenhouse—I’ll plant Vigna (yardlong beans).

@Ruzhana, have you ever grown Ogurdynya (Cucumber-Melon)?

Sansanych58 said:
@Ruzhana, have you ever grown Ogurdynya (Cucumber-Melon)?

No.

Ruzhana said:
No.

Pardon me. I meant to write right away, but got distracted and had to leave. Cultivation is just like a regular cucumber. It looks like an 8-angled cucumber. I had two varieties: Polignano and Fasano (Italian Carosello varieties). Grew them openly outdoors. Thought nothing would grow. At first, there were mostly male flowers. But then I saw fuzzy little cucumbers. Two on one variety and two on the other. Harvested them in September when I was leaving the dacha.

I didn’t take much care of them, since I visit my dacha not even every weekend, but once a month. The round one, I honestly thought was a watermelon at first. First I tasted the small ones; the P (Polignano) turned out tasteless, like chewing grass. One slice was enough, didn’t want any more. True, there was a melon smell. But Fasano was aromatic, sweet with a melon scent. Even when small.

Then we moved on to the big ones. The P repeated itself. Even had a slight bitterness. With Fasano, I ate a slice, then scooped the rest out with a spoon. Grew them for the first time. Brought month-old seedlings to the dacha.

Sansanych58 said:
First I tasted the small ones; the P turned out tasteless, like chewing grass… But Fasano was aromatic, sweet with a melon scent.

Interesting experience! It turns out this is just as much of an exotic novelty for our region.

You can grow it once just for the fun of it.

Sansanych58 said:
Cultivation is just like a regular cucumber. It looks like an 8-angled cucumber. I had two varieties: Polignano and Fasano…

Alexander, I apologize. But this is NOT an Ogurdynya (Cucumber-Melon), this is the Carosello I wrote about. I grew them from the exact same seed packet. And it is a cucumber (eaten as such)!

By the way, my Fasano didn’t germinate at all, and Polignano was very aromatic and delicately buttery, but absolutely bland. As Olya said, it’s a plant not for eating, but for a collection.

True Cucumber-Melons (Ogurdynya) are sweet. They are a subspecies of the regular melon Cucumis melo, and they only resemble a cucumber externally. There are many varieties now, and they all taste like melon. Those I haven’t grown, so I can’t speak to their cultivation.

But overall, of course, they are similar, they are close relatives. All from the Cucurbitaceae (gourd) family. 😂

Malanka said:
Alexander, I apologize. But this is NOT an Ogurdynya (Cucumber-Melon), this is the Carosello I wrote about… And it is a cucumber!

Who’s arguing. Alright. Let it be a cucumber. Apparently, I didn’t read it carefully. 🤣

Sansanych58 said:
Who’s arguing. Alright. Let it be a cucumber. Apparently, I didn’t read it carefully. 🤣

I looked closer at your photos. Indeed, the round green one looks like a melon. Apparently, the seed packet was a mix of everything. I recall that the seeds were small/round and long, only I don’t remember which ones my Polignano grew from. Perhaps Fasano really is a Cucumber-Melon, and you can’t always trust what’s written on the seed packet label.

Malanka said:
Apparently, the seed packet was a mix of everything. I recall that the seeds were small/round and long…

Yes. There were 5 seeds. They definitely differed, round ones and long ones.