Why are cucumbers bitter and what can be done about it?

Experienced vegetable growers know how much work and patience it takes to pick such coveted first cucumbers from the garden in the middle of summer. And how great the disappointment if suddenly it turns out that the cucumbers are bitter. To prevent this from happening, you must strictly follow the rules for the cultivation of these vegetables. And if the fruits are a little bitter, you should not be very upset, since there are several ways to get rid of the bitterness and use the crop in business.

Why are cucumbers bitter?

Few people know that cucumbers are native to India and belong to tropical plants, for which warmth, moisture and shade from tall trees are a comfortable habitat. These warm-loving guests do not tolerate a lack of water or an overabundance of light, they suffer greatly from the changes in night and day temperatures.

In a stressful situation, the vegetable produces cucurbitacin. A small amount of this substance is released under normal growing conditions. If the cucumber is experiencing severe discomfort, it begins to taste bitter. The toxic compound is synthesized in the leaves, then spreads throughout the plant and is deposited in the rhizome. Therefore, having tasted the leaves, you can determine before the fruit appears whether the cucumber will grow bitter or sweet.

Basically, emissions of cucurbitacin are associated with violations in the cultivation technology of this capricious crop. Noticing deviations in taste in time and eliminating shortcomings, you can save the harvest.

1. Improper watering. Cucumber is a moisture-loving plant, watering is very important for it. Moreover, not only a lack of moisture, but also its excess will lead to a stressful situation and an increased production of cucurbitacin. In a dry summer without water, the plant dehydrates, some of the roots dry out and die off, the amount of toxic compound increases. The same will happen if water is constantly on the cucumber beds. The roots rot, the supply of nutrients from the soil stops, as a result of which the plant experiences severe stress. The water used for watering cucumber beds should not be cold.
2. Irregular feeding. Cucumbers love fertile, nutritious soil with normal potassium and nitrogen content. When they lack these elements or get too much of them, the fruits become bitter.
3. Growing rules are not followed. Temperature changes negatively affect the yield of this crop. If it is very hot during the day and cool at night, cucumbers grow bitter. Therefore, at the beginning of summer, until the average daily temperature reaches + 18 ° C, the plantings must be covered with a film or special material. Poor lighting, as well as direct sunlight, will lead to a build-up of bitterness in the cucumbers.
4. Bitter varieties. When choosing ripe vegetables for seeds, you need to pay attention to the taste of the leaves or fruits. Fruits grown from seeds harvested from bitter cucumbers are always bitter.

It is necessary to properly care for cucumbers and take into account all the requirements of this capricious vegetable. This is the only way to enjoy the freshness of the cucumber pulp and make delicious preparations for the winter.

What can you do to get rid of bitterness?

Having found a bitter cucumber, do not despair. It is necessary to immediately find out the cause of the appearance of bitterness and eliminate it, then most of the harvest will be saved.

Cucurbitacin accumulates in the skin of the fruit. After peeling the bitter cucumber, you can eat it. The only pity is that along with the peel, all the beneficial trace elements that are valuable for this culture will be removed.

You can subject the fruit to soaking.To do this, cut off the tails of a cucumber and fill it with cool water for 10 hours, which is periodically changed. To speed up the process, add a little salt to the water. In this case, 6 hours are enough to get rid of the bitterness.

During heat treatment, the bitterness disappears completely. Therefore, bitter cucumbers can be fully used for canning and pickling.

In folk medicine, bitter cucumbers are used to prevent various inflammations and cancerous tumors.

How can bitterness be prevented?

Very often, the bitter taste in cucumbers can be prevented. To do this, it is necessary to observe agricultural technology, create the most comfortable conditions for the plants, water, feed and shade in a timely manner.

• Landing place

For growing cucumbers in the open field, it is better to choose an area with natural shading, for example, under old garden trees with a formed crown. Apple or pear leaves will slightly diffuse sunlight, which is very pleasing to the finicky plant. If the cucumber is grown in a greenhouse, the glass can be protected with paper or painted over in hot weather. When cultivating vegetables in open areas, the rows of cucumbers alternate with rows of tall plants, such as corn, or shade with covering material on one side.

Do not plant seedlings too often. Leave 35-40 cm between the plants, at least half a meter between the rows. As soon as the length of the lashes reaches 2 m, they pinch.

• Watering and loosening

Cucumber beds need regular watering. If it is not possible to withstand the irrigation regime, you can mulch the soil under the plants with dry lawn grass, sawdust, and tree bark. Loosening after rains is a prerequisite for obtaining sweet cucumbers. Indeed, for any plant it is very important that oxygen flows freely to the root system, and for a tropical culture - doubly.

Cucumbers are very fond of spraying with warm water. It is better to carry out such procedures early in the morning or in the evening, before the onset of heat.

• Top dressing

When growing cucumbers, one should not forget about fertilizing with potash and nitrogen fertilizers. The condition of the leaves and fruits can be used to determine if the soil has enough nutrients. With a lack of potassium or nitrogen, the leaves change color, the lashes become strongly stretched, become thin and brittle, the fruits take on an ugly shape.

• Seeds

Experienced gardeners collect seeds from their cucumbers... In this case, the following rule must be remembered: only those seeds are taken that are located in the front half of the fruit. The seeds that are closer to the tail will yield a bitter harvest next year.

Cucumber varieties without bitterness

Breeders have long worked on the problem of breeding such a variety of cucumbers so that the fruits do not taste bitter under any circumstances. Today this task has been successfully solved. That's just for salting and preservation such vegetables are not entirely suitable. However, if it is not possible to fulfill all the requirements for caring for the crop, it is better to buy seeds of deliberately sweet cucumbers. This feature of the variety is separately mentioned on the package; such seeds are much more expensive than ordinary seeds.

Hybrids known to vegetable growers Gerasim, Doka, Garland, Egoza, Mumu, Round dance, Harmonist, Lilliput, Quadrille, Shchedrik, Berendey, Egoza emit a minimum amount of cucurbitacin even under extreme growing conditions.

The emergence of a bitter taste in cucumbers is due to many reasons, and first of all - non-compliance with the technology of cultivation. If it is not possible to properly care for vegetables, it is better to buy varieties that are free from bitterness at the genetic level.