What’s causing the bitterness in your cucumber crop? People are making a big mistake.
The lucky gardener who never grew bitter cucumbers. It’s a very frustrating feeling when you’re responsibly caring for a vegetable that, when you finally harvest it, is no good. More accurately, it’s inedible.
Cucumbers are very prolific, and sometimes you get an extreme amount of them. But unfortunately, you can’t tell if these are the ones that will turn bitter while they’re growing. However, most of the time, their bitterness is down to climatic or soil conditions that can be avoided.
It’s a bit of a strange one, but cucumbers contain compounds that cause their leaves to turn bitter.
This is done to make them unattractive to various animals that might want to eat your crops. But it’s usually only the leaves and stems of cucumbers that become bitter, the parts we don’t normally eat. That’s why we don’t even know that we wouldn’t like them anyway. We only notice the bitterness when it gets into the fruit. However, the whole cucumber is not bitter; usually only the peripheral part of the stem is bitter.
So now we know where the bitterness comes from in the cucumber, but there’s nothing we can do about it after the harvest anyway. But we can try to prevent it during growth.
Four common mistakes that new growers often make.
The first thing to remember is to keep your cucumbers well watered. Hot, dry weather can make them taste bad, so make sure you give them at least one centimetre of water a week. Just stick your finger in the ground and make sure the soil is moist enough. If it’s not, water the cucumbers and add mulch to the area around the roots to prevent evaporation. If you can, plant them in a hill or raised bed, as the soil has a better chance of warming up. The cold soil can stress young plants, which can also contribute to their bitterness.
The second negative factor is nutrient-poor soil. Cucumbers use a lot of fertilizer during their growth, so give them plenty. Fertilise them every four to six weeks.
Your seedlings also don’t like too much competition from other plants in their environment. Rid them of weeds and anything that can take away water and nutrients. Plant them about thirty centimetres apart. If your cucumbers have plenty of space and fertiliser, chances are you’ll enjoy a very tasty harvest
The last obstacle is lack of sun, and this is a thing that is very difficult to control. Perhaps, just plant your cucumbers in sunny places where they are more likely to get as much light as nature allows on a clear day
As you can see, growing cucumbers isn’t difficult and you can get a decent crop from a few plants, but to make them tasty too, give your plants plenty of water, nutrients, space and sun.
But if your cucumbers turn bitter despite your best efforts, you don’t have to throw them away immediately, they won’t be bitter all over. If you peel them and cut off the end part, the rest will probably be fine. You’ll definitely save more than enough for a salad.
