Allotments 4 All

Hi all x
We've had a allotment for 3 years now, first 2 years we had lovely cucumbers...but this year they are yuck gusting...so bitter, we haven't done any thing differant from previous years. Any ideas to why they are so bitter?
Lottie xx

Temperature variations, watering problems and often poor seed.

Are you using the same seed as before or is it a new packet?

Cucumbers like all curcubits as I mentioned on the squash thread earlier have a habit of cross pollinating easily and it is possible to get a rogue batch even from goood suppliers.

Totally agree with Allabout. Also, even in one pack of seeds you can get rogues that turn out bitter, or so I am told.

i'm growing outdoor cucumbers this year for the first time, and they're all bitter. I'll try taking off all the male flowers for a start, though it doesn't say you need to on the packet. After that, i'll think about the watering situation. Very healthy plants though, with no sign of mildew. Greenhouse cukes have failed for us for the last 2 years (greenhouse is now in shade in summer from the tree next door)

Rhubarb Thrasher that almost makes me glad that I didn't get anywhere with my outdoor ones. One of the young resident male foxes on our site, who we've named Digger Fox, kept digging mine up!

I agree with RT.
Male flower prob.
It's always us init?
;D

Quote from: telboy on August 23, 2009, 22:28:55
I agree with RT.
Male flower prob.
It's always us init?
;D

;D ;D ;D

Back to the bitterness...I posted here a short while ago about a long white cucumber I'm growing outdoors which was incredibly bitter. I tried two fruits and both were inedible - and then yesterday I decided to taste a third before I threw it away. It was/is delicious!  Someone wrote that they can 'grow out' of it, and this seems to have done so ???

also they're incredibly KNOBBLY  :o

I've had the exact same experience with one of mine, Hyacinth.
Two horrible ones and now just picked one as sweet as a nut.  :)
Wondering what the next one will be like as its balancing precariously on my trellis at the mo.  :-\

Thank you for your replies and advice x

Quote from: Rhubarb Thrasher on August 23, 2009, 22:05:41
i'm growing outdoor cucumbers this year for the first time, and they're all bitter. I'll try taking off all the male flowers for a start, though it doesn't say you need to on the packet.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think outdoor cucumbers have to be pollinated to set fruit. That's why they don't tell you to remove the male flowers.