Misshappen cucumbers

Nice, straight cucumbers are desirable for making dill pickles, which fit nicely into jars. Sometimes otherwise healthy cucumbers are misshapen. This can happen to zucchini and other squashes too. The fruits can be crooked (above left), or nubbed (above right).

Crooked or nubbed cucumbers are usually caused by incomplete pollination. In botany, cucumbers and squash are a type of simple berry which contain many seeds. These plants have both male and female flowers on each plant. Pollinators such as bees move pollen from the stamen of the male flowers to the pistol on the female flower. The pollen then moves down into the ovary which is the swollen part at the back of the flower. However, ovaries contain multiple ovules. 

Fertilized ovules become the seeds inside the cucumbers and squash. The ovary itself develops into the fleshy protective enclosure for the seeds. Sometimes pollen doesn't reach each of the tiny ovules inside the ovary and they do not get fertilized - which is called incomplete pollination. (Complete pollination is when all of the ovules become fertilized.) The sections with unfertilized ovules fail to develop as much fleshy enclosure, resulting in misshapen fruit.

Sometimes fruits are thick or bulbous at the blossom end as seen in the image to the right. This is not usually a pollination problem, but is caused by a large intake of water later in the fruit’s development and is especially common after a period of rain.

While your misshapen fruit may not be best for pickle-making, it is perfectly edible. Slice them up and eat them in a salad, or cut them up for bread and butter pickles instead!