What Causes Brown Lines on Cucumbers?

Healthy Cucumbers

• Healthy cucumbers are a dark green color. The texture of the skin is smooth, and each end of the cucumber is rounded. Slender cucumbers will have less seeds; these are the best for consumption. Wash the fruit before tossing it in your salad. The skin is edible and even a good source of fiber, so whether or not you want it in your meal is a matter of personal preference.

Rotting Cucumber

• If a cucumber is soft or watery it is a sign of rot and it is time to throw it out. Storing a cucumber in a cool place, such as the fridge, will keep it fresh for up to two weeks, but freezing the fruit will result in the same watery mush as the rot. A foul smell or bitter taste is another indicator that the fruit is not safe to eat. Although a section of the fruit may look like it has a brownish color when it is rotting, distinct brown lines are not common.

Diseases

• Brown lines could be a result of disease. Some melon diseases cause lesions on the fruit, such as yellow spots or wilting. Anthracnose, for example, is a cucumber disease that causes circular lesions near the fruit's veins. When a grouping of these small lesions are aligned with each other it may resemble a brown line. Squash Mosaic is an example of another disease with many symptoms, including blisters and distortions in the fruit, which may also create discolored lines.

Solutions

• Brown lines could be from rot or disease, or they may be a harmless abnormality in the fruit. Your senses are your best defense against eating rotten or infected fruits. Test the fruit for firmness and smell the markings. If your finger easily punctures the skin or you smell something foul, then throw the fruit in the garbage. When in doubt, cut the abnormal brown lines away from the fruit's flesh and only use the green portions in your cucumber recipes.