Cucumbers can be easy to grow with a few easy tips to avoid that bitter taste you sometimes get.
Cucumbers can be an easy to grow crop for a novice gardener. They are versatile and grow easily and produce frequently throughout the growing season. There are many mistakes that can be made however, that may result in your carefully harvested cucumbers tasting bitter and unpleasant. Follow these tips and you will soon have a plentiful harvest of great tasting cucumbers for your use continuously throughout the season. You may even end up with too many cucumbers and your friends and family will be grateful for the tasty treats that you share with them.
When planting your cucumbers, it is important to remember that cucumbers need space to grow. Your plants need to be approximately 16 inches apart in order to give them plenty of room. Planting too many cucumber plants in too small of a space will result in stressed plants and bitter tasting cucumbers.
If you start your cucumbers from seeds, you must thin them out. This can be a hard task for a novice gardener. It’s difficult to pull up a plant that you have nurtured and watched sprout. Remember that it only takes a few plants to give you a plentiful amount of cucumbers. You will be rewarded with the crisp fresh taste of your home grown cucumbers.
Balance between sunlight and shade
When grown in cooler climates, a warm sunny spot is recommended for your cucumbers. Cucumbers need plenty of sunlight to grow well and produce a bountiful crop. However, if you live in a hotter climate, such as the desert southwest, you should pick the coolest part of your garden to plant your cucumbers. High heat will cause bitterness and spoil the taste of your harvest. I live in the desert and I grow my cucumbers in a spot where they only get the morning sun for a few hours each day. I’ve found that this is best for growing cucumbers in a desert climate.
I’ve found that uneven watering is the primary cause for my cucumbers tasting bitter. A good way to tell if your plant is becoming stressed is that the leaves will droop and wilt and the cucumbers will be more yellow in color than green. I have never tasted a yellowed cucumber that did not taste bitter. Dark green color on my cucumbers meant that they were crisp and tasty. In cooler weather you should test the moisture in the soil by using your index finger and poking down into the soil. It should be damp for about an inch in depth. In hotter temperatures, watering twice a day is sometimes necessary. I water my cucumbers in the morning and then again in the evening. This keeps my cucumbers growing healthy and without stress to the plant.
Too little water followed by too much water will result in bitter cucumbers. Be sure to keep the soil around your cucumbers moist. Adding a layer of straw will help hold in the moisture.
Picking your cucumbers
Over-growing is a common cause of bitterness in cucumbers. Pick your cucumbers when they reach the proper size and do not allow them to linger on the vine too long. It might be exciting to find that huge cucumber on your vine, but it will not be as tasty as the smaller one you pick.
