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rhubarb · 06-09-2012, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farm1[_4_]

"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.

The whole male flower removal is new to me. In my experience, cucumbers become bitter under only a couple of conditions. 1) Lack of water - you go away for a few days, it's warm or hot, and nobody waters the garden. 2) Basically the same thing, inconsistency of watering.

At worst, every once in a while I'll have a cucumber where the very ends (1-2 cm or so) are bitter.

However, cucumbers given to me by other gardeners are sometimes bitter and in most cases when I follow up, I discover they have gone on vacation or been away from the garden for other reasons, which meant a failure of consistent watering.

Personally, it's never been an issue in our gardens which I've always attributed to consistent watering.