Bitter cucumber

[WelshBoa]

Picked my first cucumber today which have been grown in a greenhouse and was bitter to the taste... Read quite a bit on why they go bitter, but annoyingly I cant remember what type of cucumber seed I bought.

I dont think the plants have been stressed although whilst I am watering everyday I think temperatures have been extremely high in the polythene greenhouse - and unless I unzip the door there is no ventilation. Do you think that could attribute to it as I dont religiously keep it open incase the wind takes it off! Sure I bought an F1 type but maybe the flowers didnt pollinate properly as the first few flowers came whilst still indoors (I timed the seeding of them wrong).

I have also read that if one cucumber is bitter, all others on that plant will be the same? Is that the case?

[LynRuc]

I'm no expert at all but I do know that I picked a pepper last year that was very bitter but later on they were all fine. It was just that I had picked it too early. Could it be that you have picked the cucumber too early??????

[WelshBoa]

Well yeah I did think that and it may be the case, but reading a lot of threads on cucumbers people reckon the longer you leave them on the vine, the worse the taste gets.

Will put it down to experience and hope the rest on the plant about to grow are fine! It was 12" so not sure how much more growing it could do.

[vegetable-gardener]

Did you buy a all female variety?

If you didn't then you need to take the male flowers of the plant. As these make the cucumbers bitter.

The females you can recognise as they have the little cucumber behind the flower. The males on the otherhand only have the flower.

You will need to continually take of the male flowers to stop the cucumbers getting bitter.

Main reason I always buy all female variety's.

[WelshBoa]

Hi, thought I had bought an all female plant but obviously not! Yes on closer inspection now I can see the difference between flowers in the greenhouse!

So I should remove the male flowers as :-

They will taste bitter, and if a bee goes from a male flower to a female flower it will also make the female cucumber bitter? Not to mention wasting plants energy growing male fruit?

Or am I confused and the male does need to pollinate with female flower? Sorry slightly confused....

[airconednightmare]

if you see male flowers get rid of them, the females need the attention....you don't want a sausage fest lols

[vegetable-gardener]

Yes, just remove the male flowers as and when they come. The females cucumbers will be ok without the males!! They must be feminist

[WelshBoa]

Thanks for that! Ok for my own piece of mind would you say all these are male flowers, bar the one which looks female but has it died?

I know now how to recognise them with the fruit, but not sure if the female minature fruit develops to a small size before flowering so its easily identifiable....or if not how you guage the thickness of stem as to whether its male or female.

Can see quite a few female one's on the plant now so hopefully will get a few tasty ones!

[airconednightmare]

the baby cucmber should be visable by the time the flowers open, and yes the males also have shorter, thinner stems. i'd say they were all male, bar the dead female, but it's hard to tell because the photos are kind of small...this might help Cucumber. How to identifying male and female flowers. « Completegarden’s Weblog

[vegetable-gardener]

I agree they are male flowers (exept the one) - just go along and pick the little blighters off

[WelshBoa]

Thanks everyone!!

ps: Next year all female plant!

[vegetable-gardener]

Good idea.