Cucumber - one of the favorite vegetable gardeners. And fresh, and salted or pickled cucumber - welcome guest on the table. But sometimes the effort spent on its cultivation becomes vain. Bitter vegetable - why is this happening? The content of cucurbitacin increases in fruits. This substance is always present in cucumbers, a number of reasons contribute to the increase in its concentration.
The contents of
- Abundant or insufficient watering the plants .
- Cold water when watering.
- Insufficient and incorrect fertilization with .
- Thickened planting seedlings .
- Hot sunny weather .
Incorrect watering
Cucumber is a vine that loves a wet environment and loose soil. The roots are shallow, rare watering 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 again receives insufficient nourishment and bitterness appears.
Drying of the soil and excessive moisture can cause bitterness in cucumbers. Water your plant every day when the weather is hot and dry, try to cover 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 fertilizer errors affect the quality of cucumbers
This vegetable plant is very fond of feeding, but does not tolerate a high concentration of elements. It is important to keep a balance here. The plant likes 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 of mullein and bird droppings. Remember and trace elements. The introduction of phosphorus and potassium will make nutrition complete.
Bitter fruits of cucumbers may be due to a lack of nitrogen. Thickened landing
Cucumber vine quickly and widely grows and requires free space for convenience. When growing it in open ground, use a trellis and plant plants through 20 cm in a 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.
Pinching the top of the cucumber When growing in the greenhouse , the planting pattern is similar to the previous one, but you need to provide an inter-row passage about 90 cm wide.
Influence of the bright sun and heat
The ancestor 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. Can be planted near corn and sunflower. These are 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 are airborne, but they protect from cold and sun heat.
One of the causes of the bitterness of cucumbers is the lack or excess of lighting When grown in a glass greenhouse, 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 a rather capricious culture, it does not like the to make a sharp difference between day and night temperatures of .This leads to illness, stress, yield reduction. 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. The varieties Nezhinsky, Murom, Rodnichok do not always grow tasty. Need to experiment, try new hybrids. After all, it is 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 offer to try to plant F1 hybrids: Buyan, Ant, Chistye Prudy, Maryina Roshcha, Grasshopper.
Ant 
Grasshopper 
Maryina Roscha 
Chistye Prudy From personal experience I can say that I gave up my old favorite Rodniczka and Libella, which seemed the best and indispensable. Very interesting variety Hermes, plant self-pollinated, productive. 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.
Springness 
Hermes 
Libella How to get rid of bitterness in cucumbers, what to do
Cucubitacin, which makes vegetables 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?
In order to remove bitterness, you can cut cucumbers and put them in cold water If you have bitter cucumbers, do not worry. You can always find their use or get rid of bitterness. They can be salted, pickled, while they lose their bitter taste. When preparing salads, cut off the peel, you will not feel the .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.
An easy way to destroy the bitter taste of is to soak cucumbers in water, but you need 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 follow the proper agrotechnical methods when growing it, use the advice of experienced gardeners. Experiment and then you will succeed.
