Bitter cucumber

[Millymollymandy]

I just went to munch on a slice of cucumber and yuck, it was bitter! These are the outdoor spiky kind and the 2nd I'd picked; the first was fine.

I can't remember why cucs can go bitter but I thought it was just the greenhouse types that did that and think it's something to do with pollination?

Could someone please explain it to me. Trouble is I now can't dare give them away like I normally do (because I get dozens) because I won't know if it's an edible one or not.

Oldfella this is from one of the plants you gave me!

[MKG]

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/s ... Type=garde

All the reasons you could possibly need

It looks like if you live with your cucumbers and put them to bed each night after a good story, then peel them sooooooooo carefully over a period of an hour or so, and then only eat half the fruit anyway, you might be OK.

Personally, I like bitter cucumbers.

Mike

[grahamhobbs]

Traditional indoor cucumbers have male and female flowers and you have to pinch out the male ones before they pollinate the female ones which would turn the fruit bitter. Modern varieties only have female flowers eliminating this problem.
Having said that you might occassionally get cross polination with melons.

[Millymollymandy]

Bizarre - I've never had this problem ever before and it's my sixth year of growing them in exactly the same way, same spacing, they are well watered, it's lovely and warm for them..... the only difference is that I don't know what variety the two more advanced ones are cos Oldfella gave them to me. The third plant I sowed myself with Lidl seed that was OK last year.

The article still doesn't mention the greenhouse varieties and their bitter problems so I'm off to google that one.

Oh Graham has just posted - my melons aren't flowering yet!

[Millymollymandy]

I did and always do have male and female flowers on my outdoor cucumbers and if you pinched out the male flowers how would they get pollinated?

[oldfella]

I just went to munch on a slice of cucumber and yuck, it was bitter! These are the outdoor spiky kind and the 2nd I'd picked; the first was fine.

Oldfella this is from one of the plants you gave me!

Oh well , blame it all on to me, but I will admit I know very little about the sex life of a Cucumber plant, So Please forgive me.



"Thinks"
"Spiky kind "that must be have been the male"

[Odsox]

I did and always do have male and female flowers on my outdoor cucumbers and if you pinched out the male flowers how would they get pollinated?

That's the point ... they don't.
Unlike courgettes/squash/melons they don't need pollinating or you get huge seeds inside and they go bitter.
Certainly all the greenhouse type need all the male flowers removed every morning before they get half a chance to go on the rampage.
Also they wouldn't sell "All Female" cucumber seed, would they ?

[Millymollymandy]

I don't quite understand that. So outdoor cucumbers don't need the male flowers? Why would cucumbers differ from all the other curcurbits?

I picked all the cucumbers which were ripe and tried one from each of the plants and they were fine! It's very odd!

[Millymollymandy]

Most of them are bitter including the first one off the Lidl seed that I sowed myself. I just don't understand it as I've never had a bitter one before, and I'm usually giving them away to all the hamlet.

Oh well I suppose it was sod's law that I get an edible tomato at long last but my cucs are crap!