Cucumber - one of the favorite vegetable gardeners. And fresh, and salted or pickled cucumber - a welcome guest on the table. But sometimes the effort spent on its cultivation becomes vain. Bitter vegetable - why is this happening? In fruits, the content of cucurbitacin increases. This substance is always present in cucumbers, a number of reasons contribute to the increase in its concentration.
Table of contents
Causes of bitterness
- Abundant or insufficient watering plants.
- Cold water when watering.
- Insufficient and wrong fertilization.
- Thickened planting seedlings.
- Hot sun weather.
Wrong watering
Cucumber is a vine that loves a moist environment and loose soil. The roots are shallow, sparse irrigation leads to drying out of the soil and dehydration of the plant. Leaves and fruits suffer from this. The concentration of cucurbitacin increases in fruits, bitterness appears. With an excess of moisture, the roots rot, it is again insufficiently fed and bitterness appears.
In hot, dry weather, water the plant every day; try to shelter it from rain when it rains.
Choose the right water temperature when watering. Cold - stress to the plant. Her temperature should be around 25 degrees.
How do fertilization errors affect cucumber quality?
This vegetable plant is very fond of feeding, but does not tolerate a high concentration of elements.Here it is important to keep a balance. The plant loves nitrogen, fertilizing urea (1 tablespoon per bucket of water) in the early period of development will be very useful. But an excess of nitrogen leads to the appearance of bitter cucumbers. Good feeding from mullein and bird droppings. Remember and trace elements. The introduction of phosphorus and potassium will make nutrition complete.
Thickened landing
Cucumber vine quickly and widely grows and requires free space for convenience. When growing in open ground, use a trellis and plant plants through 20 see in the row and through 30-40 between the trellis. Always thin out and remove weak plants. Do not let lashes grow more than 1.5-2 meters. Pinch the tops.
When grown in a greenhouse the planting pattern is similar to the previous one, but it is necessary to provide an inter-row passage, about 90 cm wide.
Influence of bright sun and heat
The progenitor of cucumbers is a vine growing in the shade of trees. For this reason, he does not like the heat and the bright sun. If your beds are located in a sunny place, try to attach them. You can plant a number of corn and sunflower. This is a good cucumber neighbors. They will give shade, protect from the sun and heat. It is also a good support for the cucumber vine. To protect from the sun, use covering material - spandbond, lutrasil. These materials allow air to pass through, but they protect from cold and sun heat.
When grown in a glass greenhouse you can whiten the walls with chalk, which will reduce the penetration of sunlight. Polycarbonate greenhouses have proven themselves well. They create a microclimate, pleasant to the plants, the walls protect from the cold and the burning sun. At the device of film greenhouses use a color film which passes sun beams less.
Cucumber is quite capricious culture, he do not like a sharp difference between day and night temperatures. This leads to illness, stress, reduced yield. Experienced gardeners consider stress to be one of the causes of bitter fruit.
What else can make cucumbers bitter
Very often the reason for this can be old varieties, which, at the slightest violation of growing conditions, become bitter. Sorta Nezhinsky, Murom, Rodnichok do not always grow tasty. You need to experiment, try new hybrids. It’s not for nothing that agricultural scientists work on creation.
Domestic scientists bred varieties that are resistant to the harmful effects and the vagaries of the weather. We suggest trying to plant F1 hybrids: Buyan, Ant, Chistye Prudy, Marina Grove, Grasshopper.
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- Ant
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- Grasshopper
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- Marina Grove
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- Clean Ponds
From personal experience, I can say that I refused the old beloved Rodnichek and Libella, which seemed to be the best and indispensable. Very interesting variety Hermes, plant self-pollinated, fruitful. Fruits are small, about 10 cm. They did not outgrow, and if they took off late, they were green and dense. Of the 5 varieties planted in open ground, this was the most successful. There were no bitter and crooked ugly cucumbers.
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- Rodnichok
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- Hermes
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- Libella
How to get rid of bitterness in cucumbers, what to do
Cucurbitacin, which makes the vegetable bitter, is beneficial to our health. It has an antitumor, anti-inflammatory effect, kills microbes in the body, but who wants to eat bitter vegetables?
If you have bitter cucumbers, do not be discouraged. You can always find their use or get rid of bitterness. They can be salted, pickled, while they lose their bitter taste. When making salads, cut off the peel, and do not feel bitterness. It happens that only the back part of a cucumber is bitter at the tail, then just cut it off. In restaurants, in order to rid the fruit of bitterness, they intensively rub a slice of the cut off with its back. First, the foam is released, then it becomes less and the bitterness goes away.
A simple way to destroy the bitter taste - it is to soak cucumbers in water, it is only necessary to change it several times. Kukurbititsin splits with any processing.
I would like to note that the cucumber is a capricious plant. It is important to observe the correct agrotechnical methods when growing it, use advice from experienced gardeners.Experiment and then you will succeed.