"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:
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.

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.

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.