It often happens that the most common and beloved vegetable upsets us with the unpleasant bitter taste of its fruits. The homeland of the cucumber is the tropical forests of the Indian subcontinent, where the climate remains almost unchanged throughout the year. To grow cucumbers in other climatic zones, you need to create similar conditions for them. If during the cultivation process all the agrotechnical methods laid down for this crop were not followed, you will have to think about why the cucumbers are bitter.
So why did the tropical plant take root so well in our northern vegetable gardens? The fact is that the plant has a very short growing season. It only takes about 60 days from germination to full maturity, and if sown on time, the cucumber ripens during the short northern summer. In addition, full ripening is not required from it, since mostly unripe young fruits are eaten. It is only necessary to create conditions suitable for this plant and the harvest will not be long in coming.
Outdoor cucumber care
There are two ways to grow this crop - seedling and seedling. The further north you go, the more often the seedling method is used, since seed germination directly depends on the soil temperature. It should not be below +14 degrees.
The type of soil does not particularly affect the yield; cucumbers can grow equally well both on sandy loam soil and on loam. It is important that at the same time free air access to the roots and good drainage are provided.
Before planting seedlings or sowing seeds in open ground, you need to find a place protected from strong winds. The wind significantly slows down the development of the plant. It not only enhances the evaporation of moisture from the soil, but also carries away carbon dioxide. And this leads to the development of a wasteland. The presence of CO2 in the air is necessary for the formation of female flowers.
Cucumbers will not grow on soils with a lack of organic matter. The best time for the first application of organic fertilizers is early spring.
The beds with cucumbers must be free of weeds, it is imperative to fight them. However, simply removing weeds is not enough, it is necessary to carry out loosening regularly. This agrotechnical technique serves not only to remove weeds, its other, no less important function is to supply the plant roots with oxygen and nitrogen.
Free beds
It can be useful to huddle the roots. This will protect the roots and stem from fungus. In addition, it contributes to the growth of additional roots.
When the plant is kept in greenhouse conditions, the cucumbers are watered once every 5 to 7 days. It is much more difficult to calculate the regularity of watering cucumbers in the open field. To do this, you need to take into account the weather conditions, as well as monitor the condition of the soil.
It is clear that during heavy rains, no one would think to water the ground. And sometimes you have to protect the plant roots from waterlogging and lay drainage grooves.
After watering, the soil must be moistened to its full depth.
Why are cucumbers bitter
This plant produces cucurbitacin. It is this substance that is responsible for the bitter taste of the fruit. For plants, this substance serves as protection against being eaten by animals. Cucurbitacin is produced from the first days of plant life to full maturity.It is contained not only in fruits, but also in stems and leaves.
Juicy tastes better
If the cucumber is provided with ideal conditions for development, the production of this substance will be negligible. But when the plant is under stress, cucurbitacin production increases dramatically.
The formation of bitterness is provoked by the following factors:
- irregular watering, as a result - lack of moisture;
- frequent heavy rains;
- use for irrigation of cold water;
- malnutrition. The soil lacks potassium and nitrogen compounds;
- densely planted plants.
How to remove bitterness from a cucumber
It is necessary to exclude the causes that accelerate the production of cucurbitacin. But why are cucumbers bitter in a greenhouse? What to do when the greenhouse or greenhouse did not meet the expectations of getting a high-quality harvest? It is necessary to closely monitor the temperature and humidity levels.
In greenhouse conditions, it is much easier to provide the plant with an optimal temperature and protect it from heavy rains and direct sunlight. In the open field, creating the necessary conditions for cucumbers to completely stop bitter is a very difficult task. And yet the case is not entirely hopeless. To get rid of bitterness, there are such folk remedies:
- soaking seeds in milk;
- seed treatment with honey;
- spraying flowering plants with whey (a product of the production of cottage cheese) or skim milk (a product of the production of butter).
When the question is acute - why are bitter cucumbers, perhaps it is worth listening to folk wisdom. But in addition to this wisdom, there are such methods of dealing with bitterness, which are developed by the experience of working with this culture, knowledge of its biology and just common sense. These techniques are as follows:
- When self-harvesting seed material, it is worth choosing seeds from half a cucumber, which is removed from its stalk. Bitter offspring are produced by those seeds that are closer to the lash.
- A good option is to use varieties as seed material that do not produce cucurbitacin at all. These varieties are mostly hybrids. Many of them will not taste bitter under any weather conditions.
- When planting cucumber seedlings in the ground, choose a slightly shaded place on the site. To do this, you can sow, for example, corn next to a cucumber garden.
- On particularly hot days, it is useful to arrange sprinkling with an irrigation system. In this case, the water should not be cold.
- The best soil for cucumbers is light sandy loam. On heavy loams, there are always more bitter fruits.
- The bitter part of the cucumber is the one that is located closer to the stalk. This is where bitterness begins. If the stress is prolonged, it will spread to the entire fetus. A cucumber often has a bitter skin; bitterness does not apply to the pulp. You just need to peel the cucumber.
- Even if the whole cucumber is bitter, this does not mean at all that it remains only to throw it away. Such fruits are quite suitable for salting and canning. Simple soaking helps to reduce bitterness; for this, it is enough to hold the cucumbers in cold water for several hours.
It is not always worth getting rid of a substance that leaves a sad impression after tasting. Although this bitterness is unpleasant, it can be very useful. The bitter substance contained in the skin significantly inhibits the development of certain tumor diseases. And like any bitterness, it helps to improve digestion. And this bitterness can also be used as a choleretic agent.
Having dealt with the reason why cucumbers are bitter, you can adjust the care to get juicy tasty fruits.
