we haven't grown cucumbers here before.
many years ago we grew them at our other place
but i don't remember the "art" of it as that
would be 30-40something years ago.

which brings me to the question of why one
cucumber out of seven would be extremely bitter?

as it is sliced up and marinating in a mix
of onion, mayo and apple cider vinegar i cannot
tell which slices are going to zing me until
that bite is committed, but i will eat them
anyways. i don't mind them as much as Ma does.
she won't eat it at all.


songbird

songbird wrote:
we haven't grown cucumbers here before.
many years ago we grew them at our other place
but i don't remember the "art" of it as that
would be 30-40something years ago.

which brings me to the question of why one
cucumber out of seven would be extremely bitter?

as it is sliced up and marinating in a mix
of onion, mayo and apple cider vinegar i cannot
tell which slices are going to zing me until
that bite is committed, but i will eat them
anyways. i don't mind them as much as Ma does.
she won't eat it at all.


songbird

I have had the same experience. I don't know why it happens, does anybody
have any good information?

D

In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

songbird wrote:
we haven't grown cucumbers here before.
many years ago we grew them at our other place
but i don't remember the "art" of it as that
would be 30-40something years ago.

which brings me to the question of why one
cucumber out of seven would be extremely bitter?

as it is sliced up and marinating in a mix
of onion, mayo and apple cider vinegar i cannot
tell which slices are going to zing me until
that bite is committed, but i will eat them
anyways. i don't mind them as much as Ma does.
she won't eat it at all.


songbird

I have had the same experience. I don't know why it happens, does anybody
have any good information?

D

I have grown sweet peppers and been surprised by the occasional hot
outliers . I thought of cross pollination but the following URL
suggests maybe not.

http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1996/8-23-1996/crosspol.html

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

http://marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/

songbird said:


we haven't grown cucumbers here before.
many years ago we grew them at our other place
but i don't remember the "art" of it as that
would be 30-40something years ago.

which brings me to the question of why one
cucumber out of seven would be extremely bitter?

You may have one plant that is, unfortunately, expressing a
recessive gene for bitterness. You'll have to identify the rogue
and remove it.

Hot, dry weather does tend to bring out the worst in cucumbers,
though.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

email valid but not regularly monitored

Pat Kiewicz wrote:
songbird said:


we haven't grown cucumbers here before.
many years ago we grew them at our other place
but i don't remember the "art" of it as that
would be 30-40something years ago.

which brings me to the question of why one
cucumber out of seven would be extremely bitter?

You may have one plant that is, unfortunately, expressing a
recessive gene for bitterness. You'll have to identify the rogue
and remove it.

we have four clumps of cucumber plants and each clump
has two or three plants vining around. i think we are
in between harvests now for a bit. when i go out to pick
again i'll have to mark harvest bins and mark each plant
and see if i can narrow it down...


Hot, dry weather does tend to bring out the worst in cucumbers,
though.

hot and dry is about all it has been. the next
few days we're in the "chance of thunderstorms"
zone again, but i won't believe it until it hits
the ground.

we were surprised by these cucumbers to begin with
as we'd not seen them developing (they're kinda
"outback") and then we were digging garlic and i
noticed one so we checked them all and found six
others.

thanks for the replies folks, we'll see how it
goes...


songbird

In article ,
songbird wrote:

which brings me to the question of why one
cucumber out of seven would be extremely bitter?

as it is sliced up and marinating in a mix
of onion, mayo and apple cider vinegar i cannot
tell which slices are going to zing me until
that bite is committed, but i will eat them
anyways. i don't mind them as much as Ma does.
she won't eat it at all.

Not that any of them worked this year (time for new seed, I guess - last
year the weather did them in and nothing germinated from old seed this
year) but I switched to lemon cukes (exclusively, so I could save seed)
years ago. Weird little things, but the most reliably non-bitter cuke
I've found so far. Don't need to peel them at all - just rub the spines
off and eat. I feel similarly to your Ma about the bitter ones.

If you are not peeling your slices, you might or might not find that
throughly peeling (every trace of dark green) will take away most of the
bitterness, as it's often with the peel. If you already are, then you
got the evil fruit. You could sample as you pick and see if it's
trackable to one plant - if not then just sample as you slice and reject
the bitter ones before you put them in the marinade.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.