Topic: sour cucumbers???

[gsewell]

My mother has a greenhouse in the back garden and she successfully grows toms and flowers in there, this year she tried her hand at cucumbers they grew to a massive size and looked very impressive until you put it in your mouth.... :o it was so sour it made your saliva curl,,, any ideas how she could improve the taste, she said she didnt use any feed like she does with the toms, they are situated side by side with tthe toms and uses tap water and grow bag soil.

[Plum]

Did she remove any male flowers?
I feed mine with tomato feed

[gsewell]

aparently the neighbour she got the plants from said she did not need to remove any flowers with "these ones"

[tim]

"Massive size" - too big??
Feed? Same as toms.

[gsewell]

it was approx 14" long and 8" round, could it be she is leaving them too long before picking?

[valmarg]

Well gsewell, the cucumbers grown by your mother sounds like an 'all female' variety.  The catalogues tell you that even these plants 'under stress' will grow male flowers. which need to be removed.

The recent very hot weather could have stressed the cucumber plants to produce male flowers.  If a female flower is fertilised by a male flower it will produce a bitter cucumber.

All is not lost, should there be any male flowers they should be picked off. and taste any cucumbers.  The bitter ones should be discarded, but I don't think it will be all of the crop.

Hopefully!

[jollyroger123]

I have recently started gardening and growing veg and decided to try some cucumbers.  I have always found the internet and library a good source of knowledge but i became confused regarding the pollination of cucumbers,  I am growing Marketmore and i have to a certain degree been successful all fruit have grown well and tasted fine.  Some people say not to pollinate (unsure how you could get fruit this way as my female flowers seem to drop off if i haven't been pollinating them)

Can anyone clear this up?

[saddad]

Not familiar with that variety... I grow old heritage varieties like Crystal apple and Boothby's Blond which are also white skinned... but being open pollinated I don't have to worry about the flowers!
 ;D

[djbrenton]

I grew Marketmore last year and didn't bother pollinating. Maybe I was lucky enough with insects or misting.