and
Should I be removing some of the flowers / tiny cucumbers so the others will mature?
This is a really silly question, the seed pack says the plant matures in 55 days - 55 days from what? From when a tiny flower forms? (Novice gardeners heay!)
Sliced a piece off and stuck it in my mouth - yuck! Tasted like bitter cabbage. Maybe they need to be bigger before harvesting? Or maybe I need to grate it into a big bowl of sour cream and eat as dip?
Two of the plants didn't survive gales in early June and I decided to grow the surviving plant in the sun room.
Variety: Cucumber Bush Pickle 'Concombre Pepino Cetriolo', Plant Hart's Seeds, US$2.29.
All I know about growing cucumbers could be written on a stamp. I remember my mum 'tickling' the flowers of her home grown about 30 years ago. A very strange activity indeed! I hope you get some answers and your next one tastes better!
ReplyDeleteWe just grow common cucumbers and they are delicious and fresh tasting
ReplyDeleteYou may find this page useful. Some varieties are more prone to bitterness than others - our Burpless tasty Green obviously isn't!
We don't pick off flowers and generally pick the fruit when it looks big enough to use
Hmm... I am with Sue, I just pick them when they seem big enough, and they taste great... maybe yours has gotten too big (for how big that variety is supposed to be) and that's why it's bitter??
ReplyDeleteAnd from what I understand, it's 55 days from when you plant the seed... isn't it?? That seems pretty quick hey.
Kelli, it appears that you might have a cucumber more suited to pickling, especially dill or sweet pickles. Yours looks mature. This variety does tend to be a bit bitter. For a sweeter cucumber try a Straight 8. To serve this one, make a brine of vinegar, water, salt, pepper, any other spice you'd like to add. Look up some recipes on the web for refrigerator pickles. My mom would put cucumber slices in vinegar diluted with water, add onion rings, lots of black pepper and some salt. Good luck. Just look up some recipes. I have never grown them in pots, so to control production you might pull off some blooms, but your really don't have to. A bit more water might prevent curling. Mine in the garden curl and I think they get too dry.
ReplyDeleteKelli, bless you! Your post has just given me a welcome chuckle! I'm jealous you even have a cucumber to taste. I am trying to grow them too, a lemon and two bush varieties. I got a couple of blooms on one but that is it. Looks like you've got some readers with good advice. I always find Sue's website a wonderful resource. Hope those cucumbers sweeten up! They are one of my favorite salad vegetables :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kelli, we have 2 in the greenhouse and have sampled a couple while still small and they tasted ok.I did read that removing the male flowers prevents the fruit from developing a bitter taste?
ReplyDeleteKelli, I think the variety you describe is one for pickling, so I think it will inevitably taste bitter. The picture on the seed packet certainly makes it look as if the one you picked is about the right size. The cucumbers I have grown are much longer, smoother and darker green, but they are salad cucumbers like you buy in the supermarket. Deciding when to pick them is a matter of experience I think. Try them at different stages if you don't have previous experience to guide you. The "55 days to maturity" thing is usually in relation to the time you plant them out (which of course is pretty arbitrary!), not from when you sow the seeds.
ReplyDeleteMost cucumbers on the market these days are All Female varieties, so hopefully you shouldn't get any male flowers. I personally wouldn't remove any flowers or young fruit, since I think plants can usually judge for themselves how many fruit they are able to support, and they will abort any excess.
Well Kelli you beat me: I'm growing two varieties, one "normal" and one "mini". So far the normal one has produced a mini fruit. And taste? You mean you can grow cucumbers to EAT???
ReplyDeleteHi Kelli
ReplyDeleteI tried growing cucumbers in the greenhouse with little success. Didn't get any cucumbers even if the plant survived. For the last few years on the plot we've grown an outdoor variety Burpless Tasty Green. It actually grows better outside than inside. I don't have to bother removing male flowers or removing small cucumbers. The cucumbers it produces are sweet if a bit prickly. I've never thought that cucumbers are easy to grow, I've always found them rather a challenge. Perhaps that's just me.
We grew cucumbers this year, but they tasted good, so I'm not sure what to say. Perhaps you can peel it - if it still tastes bitter, just pickle them!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your comments - very helpful! I guess they are for pickling. I'll research some recipes as I'd love to be able to make some sort of summer salad with them rather than pickle.
ReplyDeleteFlowers dropping off naturally - never thought about this until Mark mentioned it but this is happening on my chili/hot pepper plants so it's all making more sense (the more veg I grow, the more I learn - and blogger comments really help too)! :)
Sue - the article you referenced is brilliant! I'm thinking my uneven watering has contributed to the bitterness. Thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteI have never had any luck with cucumbers! I grew the most enormous ones last year and picked them when they started going light green on the ends, they were good - but the apple cucumbers I tried growing were all bitter. No idea why! Love the comments above though, I'm learning from them too!
ReplyDeleteMmmm...I am not really sure what makes it bitter and sweet. But I do remember that we had some cucumber plants that gave different taste at different time of harvesting. Might be the water intake or nutrient in the soil.
ReplyDeleteKelli, I think your cucumbers are best used for pickles, too. You can probably find recipes on the net that will tell you how to cope with bitterness, such as soak peeled cucumbers in vinegar and salt before pickling or something of the sort. I think Ann and Mark made some good points. When mother grew cucumbers just for pickles, we never ate them in salad. She grew long, smooth cucumbers for eating fresh. I do know that zuchinni will turn bitter if not picked when it is just mature and that you shouldn't let cucumbers start turning yellow or they, too, will be bitter. Lots to learn, but you are doing well. Please share information with us, as you learn.
ReplyDeleteKelly, I posted a recipe on the Garden Spot that you might try. Very simple for refrigerator pickles.
ReplyDelete