The normal taste of cucumber is the taste of freshness. Sometimes, counting on a rich harvest of tasty and healthy vegetables, the gardener takes fruits - and they turn out to be bitter. The fruit may turn out to be bitter in whole or in part, if the bitterness is partial - it usually refers to the tips of the fruits that have to be cut.
Why does this bitterness arise? Many gardeners ask this question, and it is necessary to consider it in detail in order to grow a tasty crop without unpleasant surprises.
Main reasons
The reason for bitterness is that cucumber contains cucurbitacin, a bitter-tasting substance that is produced in all fruits of the pumpkin family. And cucumbers just belong to this family. This is a weak toxin, a kind of poison, which, of course, cannot kill a person, but allows cucumbers to protect themselves from various pests, from negative factors that impede the normal development of the plant and its fruits.
Cucumbers become bitter due to the fact that the concentration of this substance in them begins to increase. And this increase does not happen by chance - it means that the plant is under the influence of stress. Stress factors increase its production, making cucumbers tasteless, sometimes simply unsuitable for food due to unpleasant bitterness.
There are a huge number of stress factors that can spoil the crop, and it is necessary to list them so that each gardener can protect his crop in advance. Cucumbers can become bitter due to:
- Periodic drying, insufficient watering. It is a moisture-loving culture that experiences stress when it dries;
- Pouring plants with water also does not lead to anything good. With excessive watering or very humid, rainy weather, the fruits can again become bitter;
- An excess of the sun or an elevated temperature in the greenhouse leads to the same problems, and the same can be said about excessive shade, cold;
- Watering with cold water is unacceptable, it leads to diseases and yellowing of plants, as well as to the appearance of bitterness in the fruits;
- Diseases of seedlings;
The list of factors is quite large, and the task of the gardener and gardener is to try to eliminate such problems in order to get tasty and healthy fruits.
There is another trick that not everyone knows about. Even in the most ideal conditions, cucumbers can grow bitter - if the seedlings are planted from seeds located in the back of the seed fruit. To get the perfect harvest and not to suffer from seedlings, you must select seeds from the center of the fruitand throw the rest.
How to deal with this and grow delicious cucumbers?
Having understood the reasons due to which a bitter aftertaste appears in the fruits of cucumbers, it is not difficult to understand what exactly needs to be done in order to grow good, tasty vegetables. It is necessary to observe the rules of planting and growing, to create exactly those conditions in which plants will feel comfortable.
So, you need to carefully care for seedlings in order to prevent diseases in the early stages of development.When transplanting, you also need to proceed carefully so that the plants do not experience severe stress. Next - you need to choose a suitable place for planting, which will meet the needs of plants in terms of humidity and sunlight.
Properly organized watering is extremely important. Only need to be watered with warm water, on schedule, avoiding waterlogging and drying out. If you grow plants in a greenhouse, you need to maintain sufficient air humidity, but at the same time exclude overheating of plants, provide ventilation and access to pollinators - or pollinate them manually.
An excess of fertilizers, especially nitrates, must not be allowed, in this case, the taste of vegetables also deteriorates, and the plants experience stress. The ability to care for cucumbers and create ideal conditions for them comes with experience - you need to be observant, learn at first glance to determine the optimal conditions for vegetables that are grown on the site, and everything will definitely start to turn out.
