Bitter cucumbers

[Farm1]

Over in the uk.rec.gardening gorup there is a current discussion about bitter cucumbers for those who may like to wander over and through an eye over it.

[David Hare-Scott]

I don't like the theory that bitterness is due to pollination. I never cull male flowers, I always have swarms of bees and rarely get bitter fruit. I think if you effectively prevent pollination on open pollinated varieties you will get very small stunted fruit or none. I don't know much about F1 hybrids (or 'indoor' cucumbers whatever they may be) as I don't use hybrids except for corn. To me the stress theory is more likely to be right.

D

[songbird]

hehe, or start one here instead. :)

i still haven't found out the culprit here, but of the two dozen cucumbers we've had this season (so far, the plants are still producing) only two have been bitter. i didn't pick either of them so i could not mark them to know which plant they came from as i'd hoped.

the second one was not nearly as bitter as the first.

songbird

[Farm1]

I have absolutley no idea about this topic at all, but I do know that 2 of the posters over there who have said to take off the male flowers are well thought of and have a reputation for being good gardeners.

I went off to have a look at Dr Google and did a search on "Telegraph Cucumbers" and found lots of similar advice to get rid of the male flowers.

I must admit that I'd never even considered removing male flowers.

[allen73]

There are many reason causes bitterness in cucumber. One of the most common reason is heat stress. Other reason is like uneven watering, tempetature fluctuations and heredity.

To prevent from bitter you need to raise you cucumber in a best way. Make sure you cucumbers is in an even temperature, proper watering etc.

[Ecnerwal]

I (now) just grow lemon cukes - I've never had a bitter one from those. Not good if you have long dill pickle aspirations, or gherkin aspirations, but otherwise quite nice. Pick, rub spines off, eat - no need to peel. Open pollinated so you can save seed (if you only grow one kind of cuke, or go to a lot more work to keep your seed pure than I'm willing to.)