Bitter cucumbers

Real seeds advice -
Bitter cucumbers? Every year we get a few customers mailing with the disappointing news that they've harvested their first cucumber - and it tastes inedibly btter. Why does it happen - and how can you avoid it?

Firstly, if it's one of our varieties, it's *nothing* to do with male flowers. In the past some old hybrid types needed to have male flowers removed, but you'll rarely find those types on sale these days. Our real cukes need the male flowers to pollinate the females and set fruit & seed.
What actually causes the bitterness is stress to the plants. If they're not happy, the plants make too much of the bitter chemical cucurbitacin, basically protecting themselves from being eaten. So think about the growing conditions:
Are your plants
- too dry or drying out & wilting before being watered?
- too wet / overwatered with soggy compost (usually less of a problem outdoors unless your soil is very compacted/poorly draining)?
- short of nutrients?
- too cold?
- too hot &/or suffering lack of ventilation in a greenhouse/tunnel?
The good news is that if you do have bitter cucumbers, generally if you pick off existing fruits, and then figure out what is stressing the plant and correct it, the rest of your crop will be just fine.


One reply on FB that may help?
I always cut the ends off my cucumbers and rub them on the cut ends. This makes a foamy residue that can be washed off under running water. This trick draws any bitterness away.