What to do so that the cucumbers do not burn. What is the reason for the bitterness of cucumbers and how to prevent the appearance of an unpleasant taste

Not a single one can do without cucumbers country cottage area. Any person will gladly eat a delicious crispy cucumber plucked from the garden. However, there are situations when suddenly the cucumber became bitter. The question immediately arises: how to deal with this problem.

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Why are cucumbers bitter?

Studies have found that the bitterness of cucumbers is given by the substance cucurbitacion, the production of which largely depends on many factors, and in particular on the weather.

Going back in history, we know that the cucumber grew wild in tropical forests in the shade of giant trees with little to no direct sunlight, without experiencing temperature changes and without suffering from heat. Therefore, hot sunny summers with night temperature drops cause stress in the plant, provoking the formation of cucurbitacin, as protective agent concentrated at the stem..

So what causes bitterness?

• Weak or too bright lighting. The plant prefers the golden mean.
• Weak watering and waterlogging, cold water is also not to the taste of the cucumber, in the shade of trees, the wild fellow always grew in warm, loose and moist soil.
• Poor clay or sandy soil or oily overfertilized soil also lead to stress. During the fruiting period, it is necessary to supply cucumber bushes with a balanced diet.
• Thickened plantings, tightness and twisting of the lashes, poor access to fruits. All parts of the plant need space.
• Plants prefer neutral soil acidic soil he is uncomfortable and uncomfortable.
• Poor-quality seeds or their improper harvesting leads to an unpleasant taste. Gardeners who prefer to harvest seeds themselves admit major mistake: you can not take seeds close to the stalk, but on the contrary, only in a third of the cucumber at the spout.

Preventive measures

In the open field

It is recommended to have from tall shrubs to the north. However, plants should not be planted near any pumpkin crops, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. These plants are aggressors and cucumbers survive, and they, in turn, become bitter.

For cucumbers do high bed, be sure to lime if the soil is acidic, cover with a film, when the soil warms up to 15 degrees, seeds are sown. Warming up the earth to 20 degrees allows the surface to be mulched with sawdust or straw.

If the bed is not mulched, then you need to loosen it weekly. Loosening is equivalent to dry watering and allows you to evaporate excess moisture and add air to the root system.

Watering should be carried out regularly and feed the plants complex fertilizers, but use organic matter carefully so as not to overfeed with nitrogen, which leads to bitter fruit.

Over the bed in hot weather or, conversely, in rainy weather, a thin film is stretched to save the bushes from bright sunlight or from excess moisture.

Direct the lashes so that they have enough light, are spacious and do not form a shadow.

in the greenhouse

Cultivation and is not much different from open ground. In dry and hot summers, the film or glass should be made opaque, that is, whitened with chalk.

The sashes for ventilation are opened if the temperature and humidity outside are about the same as in the greenhouse. Otherwise, when the cucumbers are cold, they will respond with the appearance of bitterness.

How to remove the bitterness of fruits

So, you have grown bitter cucumbers, is there an opportunity to correct the situation? There are several ways to remove bitterness:

• the main bitterness is concentrated at the stalk and in the peel. Therefore, if you cut off the “ass” and the peel, then the fruit can be eaten;
• cucumbers cease to be bitter during heat treatment, that is, during canning;
• you can soak the fruits in water for a while, they will be much less bitter.

Although cucurbitacin makes the fruits bitter, it is not only harmless to human health, but can also be beneficial. It improves the activity of the liver, pancreas and promotes the resorption of malignant tumors. Sometimes bitter fruits are specially grown for treatment.

Varieties resistant to bitterness

Breeders have managed to create varieties in which the risk of bitterness is minimal. This is hybrid varieties F1: Grasshopper, Buyan, Thumb Boy, Green Wave, Maryina Grove, Kozyrnaya Karta, Chistye Prudy, Ant. Created lettuce varieties that never form bitterness: Harmonist, Shchedryk, Quadrille, Liliput, Egoza, Berendey. However, they are not recommended to be preserved.
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This trouble is familiar to all gardeners: you try a cucumber from your own garden, and it tastes bitter! And if one has become bitter, most likely, others will not keep you waiting. You have to peel the most useful thing - the skin, in order to get rid of the bitter aftertaste, and this technique does not always help. Why are cucumbers bitter? How to prevent such a disaster in a cucumber garden? What to do if growing and fruiting cucumbers become bitter? How to remove bitterness? We will deal with these issues in detail.

Why are cucumbers bitter?

The bitterness in cucumber fruits is due to an increase in the level of a chemical compound called cucurbitacin. Its plants are developed to protect against animals: so that they do not eat the fruits ahead of time (and we just love unripe cucumbers, what a shame!).

By and large, cucurbitacin is more useful than harmful. It has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anticancer properties. Cucumber produces it constantly, from the moment of planting, but this does not bother us, because most of This substance is found in the stems and leaves. But when the cucumber plant is under stress, cucurbitacin begins to be overproduced in the peel and even in the pulp of the fruit as a defensive reaction.

What causes stress in plants? Unfavorable climatic conditions. More precisely, the weather is not appropriate optimal conditions for the growth and development of cucumber. Cucumber, like a true plant of the Indian jungle, wants warmth, humid air and light partial shade, but here, you know, we are far from the tropics. However, this does not mean that the gardener is powerless in the struggle for a crop of cucumbers without bitterness. There is a well-defined list preventive measures, which minimize stress for the plant and reduce the content of cucurbitacin in fruits.

How to grow cucumbers so as not to be bitter?

The rules for growing cucumbers without bitterness are simple. In general, they all boil down to one thing: to bring the growing conditions of cucumbers as close to ideal as possible.

• Properly select or buy seeds. If you collect cucumber seeds yourself, then you should not take seeds at the base of the fruit. Seeds taken closer to the "nose" of the cucumber are much less likely to pass bitterness to the next generation. And for those who buy seeds, it's even easier. It is necessary to choose hybrids and varieties without genetic bitterness (this is always written on the packaging). The choice is great, there are many such cucumbers: Egoza, Herman, Harmonist, Santana, Koni, Evita, Berendey, Quadrille, Courage, Khrustik, Shchedryk, Liliput, Rodnichok, Masha, Ant and others.
• Do not plant cucumbers scorching sun m. Cucumbers prefer a slight shading and diffused light. Therefore, they are often planted under the branches. fruit trees or planted nearby tall crops such as corn.
• Provide cucumbers with regular and sufficient watering. In the absence of rain, cucumbers are watered every day at the rate of 1-1.5 liters for each bush. In a hot and dry period - twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. If it is not possible to visit the site so often, mulching is indispensable. Covered with cut grass, straw, hay, seed husks, etc. the soil evaporates much less moisture, which allows you to reduce watering without harming the plants.
• water cucumbers warm water. One of the most common causes of cucumber stress is watering. cold water. The root system of the cucumber bush does not need extra cold at all, it is very sensitive to cold. To grow cucumbers without bitterness, it is best to use settled, sun-warmed water for irrigation.
• Protect plants from low temperatures and their fluctuations. That is to use any possibility of warming. You can grow cucumbers in a greenhouse (and be sure to close it at night), you can cover the beds with foil or other materials when the temperature drops, you can arrange special warm beds under cucumbers or grow cucumbers in barrels, you can lay out heat accumulators on the garden bed (large cobblestones or transparent plastic bottles with water) - there are many options. The main thing to remember is that, first of all, the roots of plants, and not the above-ground parts, need heat.
• Protect cucumbers from heat and drought. In addition to abundant watering in the heat, cucumber beds often require additional shading from the sun. Above the beds of open ground, a canopy is usually built from improvised material, in greenhouses to reflect scorching rays often use a mirror film glued to the glass. Do not interfere with additional spraying with water.
• Fertilize and feed cucumbers. We always fulfill this point in good faith, feeding cucumbers is sacred. Most importantly, bring necessary fertilizers on time and according to the rules, because sometimes cucumbers become bitter due to an excess of nitrogen in the soil. Be carefull!
• Use special biopreparations to protect against stress. An optional item, but if it is possible to use biopreparations that strengthen plant immunity, why not?

How to get rid of bitterness in cucumbers?

What to do if we are late with prevention, and cucumbers are already bitter? The very first step is to water the bed with warm water, and then take care of it according to the same rules as described above: shade or protect from hypothermia, water and feed regularly. Although, to be honest, if one bitter cucumber is caught, most likely the majority of cucumbers of this variety will be bitter.

Bitter cucumbers can be safely salted, pickled or used in preparations, if you pre-soak them in cold water for at least 12 hours (periodically changing the water). If bitterness has accumulated in the skin, then cucumbers can also be used in fresh peeled off. Another way to get rid of bitterness in cucumbers is this: you need to cut off the base of the fruit (dark green ass) one and a half centimeters long and rub the parts of the cucumber together in a circular motion.

Those who constantly grow cucumbers on their plot know how much work needs to be invested in this horticultural crop. And what a shame it is if the resulting crop does not please with its taste. Instead of crispy and appetizing fruits, we collect bitter cucumbers from the garden. What is the reason for this, and how to prevent the appearance of bitterness?

Causes of bitterness in cucumber fruits

Cucumbers belong to the gourd family. These plants have genetically developed one feature: they contain the substance cucurbitacin.

What is cucurbitacin?

This is a toxic compound, which, however, has a number of useful properties (antitumor, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory). Plants need it to protect themselves from being eaten by animals, at least until it has fruit and seeds.

Cucurbitacin is produced in plants constantly, from the very moment it was planted, and is contained in its stems, and in leaves, and in fruits, in the peel. Scientists were able to establish that 9 genes are responsible for its production. But if the plant is under stress, then the production of this substance increases.

Why can cucumbers experience stress?

In the event that they have not been created ideal conditions. This garden culture came to us from India, where a subtropical and tropical climate reigns. Therefore, cucumbers grow well where there is no scorching sun, and the humidity is high.

If they lack moisture, suffer from the sun or temperature changes, then the plants experience extreme stress, which leads to increased production of cucurbitacin, and this is the main reason that cucumbers get a bitter peel or a bitter taste in general.

Factors that provoke the formation of bitterness

1. The plants lacked moisture, watering was irregular.
2. There was too much water (because of the rainy summer).
3. They grew in direct sunlight, there was an overabundance of sunlight.
4. Low humidity and intense heat.
5. The plants did not receive proper nutrition (there was a lack of potassium and nitrogen substances).
6. For planting, seeds were used, which were taken from the back of the cucumber, but it was necessary to take from the front of the fruit.
7. The plants were planted too densely, because of which they suffered from a lack of sunlight.
8. The seedling has been ill.
9. Cold water was used for irrigation.

How to prevent bitter taste in cucumber fruits?

We found out why cucumbers are bitter. What can be done to prevent bitterness?

Based on the reasons that affect the taste of cucumbers, you can make a list of those actions that will help deal with the problem:

1. Choose right place for planting, so that cucumbers do not grow under the scorching sun. They need diffused sunlight. Cucumber culture feels great in the shade of rows of corn or under the branches of fruit trees. To protect from sunlight, you can use a spunbod (covering material).
2. Water the plants regularly. Many of us are in the country on weekends, so cucumbers are not watered every day. The alternation of drought and abundant watering causes stress in the plant and guarantees the appearance of bitterness. Therefore, do not forget about regular watering, and use only warm water, which warmed up under the sun during the day.
3. The correct arrangement of the beds. If you grow cucumbers in open field, do not plant them near strawberries and raspberries. These plants will draw all the nutrients and water out of the soil.
4. Care. It is important to constantly look after cucumbers: mulch beds, remove weeds, loosen the soil. This helps retain moisture.
5. Protect from hypothermia. If you are growing cucumbers in a greenhouse, do not open it on cold days. Such ventilation will be stressful for a heat-loving plant. In greenhouses, for protection from the cold, they use the same spunbond that is pulled over arcs or a frame.
6. Protect plants from heat. Extreme heat and dry air are also detrimental to cucumbers. If it is installed on the street hot weather, it is necessary to water them with warm water every morning and evening. In the open field, a canopy made of white material can be used to protect against heat. If you grow cucumbers in a greenhouse, then protect them with mirror film, which is usually glued to glass. It transmits light on one side, but reflects it on the other.
7. Don't plant seeds in clay soil. Loose soil, peat is suitable for this crop. It can be diluted wood ash to reduce acidity.
8. Fertilizers. Cucumber should receive all the nutrients it needs. Therefore, do not forget about fertilizers. But gardeners do not recommend using fresh manure, since fresh organic matter often provokes the release of bitterness. Therefore, feed the plants only with rotted manure, having prepared the beds since the fall. If you have already spread fresh manure, water the bushes constantly and make sure the soil does not dry out.

As we can see, you will have to work hard to prevent the appearance of bitterness. But you can go to others, more simple way: buy for planting varieties of cucumbers that never taste bitter.

Some varieties do not tend to accumulate cucurbitacin, so they do not develop a bitter taste, whether you watered them or not, and what the weather is like outside. For example, these include the following: Berendey, Harmonist, Egoza, Quadrille, Horses, Courage, Midget, Masha, Ant, Shchedryk, Rodnichok, Khrustik and others.

There is also an opinion that those varieties that are intended for salting are not bitter, but this is a delusion. The appearance of bitterness really depends on the variety, but not on whether it is salad or was grown for pickling.

What to do if cucumbers are bitter? How to use them?

If you picked the first cucumber from a bush and it turned out to be bitter, then most likely you will have to come to terms with the fact that the entire crop of this variety will grow the same.

What to do? Is it possible to eat bitter fruits? They cannot be poisoned, on the contrary, it is even believed that they are more useful than ordinary ones. However, if you eat a lot of fresh bitter cucumbers, there is a risk of indigestion or intestinal upset.

How to remove bitterness from cucumbers?

If the fruit only has a bitter peel, just cut it off and eat only the sweet part. If the bitterness has gathered in the tail, cut off the green bottom (1.5 cm) and rub the cut until all the white foam comes out. After that, wash thoroughly, and the cucumber is ready to eat!

However, the most proven way to get rid of bitterness is soaking or heat treatment. Under the influence of water or heat, the cucurbitacin in cucumbers is destroyed, and their bitter taste disappears.

Soak cucumber fruits for a day or at least 12 hours in cold water (remembering to periodically change the water), then wash and eat or add to a salad. Or make lightly salted, pickled or pickled cucumbers from them.

Video: why cucumbers grow bitter and how to fix it?

Plant varieties that are genetically bitter-free. They will never turn bitter under any growing conditions. In other varieties, substances that cause bitterness do not accumulate immediately and the slower they grow, the more bitter cucumbers. This happens when there is a lack of heat, light, moisture, nutrients. Create conditions for quick filling and cucumbers will thank you, they will not be bitter. Crunch on health!

Bitter cucumbers come from drought and heat. As a rule, these are old varieties. In modern bitterness does not accumulate at all. As I began to plant all sorts of gherkins, I forgot that cucumbers are bitter. And I eat them early. One and a half months after planting. And the seed consumption is small, soot after 40-50 cm, per seed. The branches bear fruit well. And before I remember, my father will plant and look in when the cucumbers appear, and there are only barren flowers. Waters them to a stupor, you start to eat the first - bitter. So, I watered a little.

Cucumbers become bitter from the fact that they do not have enough water, the temperature is unstable, the plant is too hot, or, on the contrary, there is not enough sun if you have gone too far with humus.

Water constantly, see that the cucumbers do not get too hot, make a greenhouse for them.

If you grow cucumbers yourself, then to avoid a bitter taste, you need:

1. Water cucumbers well and often.
2. Make sure that it is not too hot or too cold (if cucumbers grow in a greenhouse).
3. It is desirable that there are no sudden changes in temperature.

if the above points are not followed, then the plant is under stress and begins to produce the substance cucurbitacin, which is anti-stress and gives bitterness.

In general, cucumbers come from India, where they grow in the shade. tropical trees- from here they like heat (they also need to be watered with warm water) and moisture.

Another bitterness in cucumbers depends on the genes (or varieties) of cucumbers. There are specially bred varieties that never bitter.

The reason most often lies in adverse weather conditions. Either too hot, or too cold, or constant temperature fluctuations. What to do? Try to create conditions, ventilate the greenhouse, water a lot, protect from the cold. If grown, then you can pickle or pickle.

Cucumbers become bitter in taste if the rules of cultivation are not followed. Cucumbers can be bitter if not watered regularly. This means that they did not water at the same time, skipped the days of watering, and then poured with a margin. First there is not enough water, then there is too much water.

Cucumbers can be bitter due to cold weather due to lack of light.

If the cucumbers are large, but bitter, then the excess nitrogen in the ground is to blame. Too much fertilizer.

Cucumbers taste sweet when grown in pH 6-7 soils.

And the reason for the bitterness of cucumbers may lie in the tightness of the plants. grow on small area, stems and lashes are twisted. Then it remains to preserve the cucumbers.

The causes of the bitterness of cucumbers have long been identified, as for these very reasons, there are several of them. The most common are insufficient watering, watering with cold water, sudden changes in temperature, high humidity, lots of light. In order for the cucumbers not to be bitter, it is necessary to exclude all these reasons, only in this case there will be a chance that they will not be bitter. But, as you know, in reality it is very difficult to do this.

I have been growing cucumbers in a greenhouse for many years. I choose only hybrid seeds: in them, even with the stress that a plant can experience from dry air or soil, as well as watering with cold water, bitterness appears in microscopic doses that are indistinguishable in taste.

But then one day a varietal cucumber wormed its way into the greenhouse. And she watered it with warm water, and fertilized, not to mention the fact that the soil in the greenhouse is the most fertile ... So no, I still found some reason and all the fruits were bitter with him, no matter what I did.

She made one conclusion: the cause of bitterness is in the wrong seeds, period.

Hybrids can also be grown on the ground, and then neither temperature changes nor insufficient watering can turn delicious cucumber into inedible bitter byaka.

Cucumbers are often bitter due to a lack of potassium. In order to remove bitterness, fertilizers containing it should be used. For example, ash, as well as dolomite flour. You can spray with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Water more besides this. And at night, if the weather is cold, cover with foil. At night they grow the most. In addition, the film will help fight the voids that occur in cucumbers.

In fact, cucumbers become bitter due to the following reasons, namely:

• insufficient watering
• Conversely, excess moisture
• an excess or not enough potassium or nitrogenous substances in the soil,
• insufficient level of illumination,
• low air humidity.

• In our garden, cucumbers became bitter only in hot sunny weather, if it had not rained for a long time. In the summer, we constantly poured large containers of water so that it would heat up in the sun during the day, and in the evening we thoroughly watered the cucumber beds.

Bitterness in cucumbers is a great chagrin for a gardener. raised excellent harvest, you pick an even, green, fragrant, pimple-covered greens from the garden and you are already looking forward to its unique taste. But suddenly you get disappointed: you can’t eat a cucumber.

And although scientists consider the bitterness in the fruit useful, no one is delighted with such cucumbers. Of course, you can peel them from the skin, in which more bitterness accumulates, but you will not be able to completely avoid the bitter taste.

Why are cucumbers bitter?

Scientists have long established the culprit for the bitter taste of cucumbers - a substance called cucurbitacin. It is always present in the fruits of cucurbits in a small amount. But its sharp accumulation occurs under the influence of any stress.

Among the main reasons for the appearance of bitterness in fruits, two are distinguished: the hereditary properties of the variety and growing conditions.

Breeders tirelessly develop new varieties of cucumbers without bitterness. In the seeds of the last generation of cucumbers, the gene responsible for the formation of cucurbitacin is simply absent. Their seed packages usually state: "Hybrid genetically without bitterness." But there is one nuance here: as a rule, black-thorned pickling varieties of cucumbers are usually more bitter, but white-thorned salad varieties are not.

By its nature, cucumber is a liana, accustomed to growing in the subtropics under the canopy of dense thickets in warmth and moisture. Therefore, if cucumbers fall into unfavorable weather- heat, bright sun, lack of moisture, watering with cold water, a sharp change in temperature, lack of light, nutrition (especially potassium) - or simply overgrown with weeds, then they grow bitter.

Another reason may be the incorrect selection of seeds from already ripe fruits that you have stored for this purpose in your garden. Seeds from them should be removed from the middle of the fruit. In the nose, they often do not have time to ripen, and bitter cucumbers grow from the seeds extracted from the back.

Bitter cucumbers: what to do?

What to do if you do not know whether the variety of cucumbers you bought will be bitter or not? The answer is simple: chew the leaves. Usually bitterness is manifested from the beginning of seed germination. It is most pronounced in the cotyledons, slightly weaker - in the leaves. Bite off a piece of a cotyledon leaf from a seedling, and taste a tendril from an adult bush. If they are bitter, take the following measures.

1. Water cucumbers only with water heated to 20-22 ° C and only in warm and dry weather ( average daily temperature air - above +15°С). In the heat - watering in the morning and evening in small doses, so that the soil is constantly moist at a depth of at least 10-15 cm. And not only under the root, but also with rain.

2. Grow cucumbers on well-filled with organic matter, light and loose soils. After the shoots form on the lashes and the first flowers appear, apply compost again between the rows or other organic fertilizer.

3. Mulch your beds. Mulch will not only retain and retain moisture in the soil, but will also be able to suppress the growth of weeds. The soil can be covered already during the planting of cucumbers plastic wrap, and here is the mulch organic origin, for example, straw, cannot be used until the earth warms up to 20 ° C.

4. Provide plants with enough room to grow. If you grow cucumbers on trellises, then plant the plants at a distance of about 20-30 cm from each other. If spreading, then place holes with 1-2 seeds or seedlings at a distance of about 90 cm in a row and 120-150 cm between them.

5. Do not keep the cucumber on the whip for more than 12 days from the moment of pollination. And do not leave overripe fruits on the lashes: young cucumbers can grow deformed and always with bitterness.

6. After the next harvest, cucumber lashes should not be left upside down.

7. In the scorching sun, put lutrasil on the borage, when it gets cold, hide it under the film.

Bitter cucumbers are not very pleasant in taste, but they beneficial features in a different. AT last years scientists have proven that the cucurbitacin present in them inhibits pathological tissue growth and, accordingly, can be used as an anticancer agent. So it would be useful to eat at least a few bitter fruits for prophylactic purposes.

It is believed that bitter cucumbers are also useful for the heart, pancreas, and small intestine. In China, bitter cucumbers are even specially grown and made from them. medicines. In addition, bitter cucumbers are believed to be good for the liver.

During processing, cucurbitacin breaks down, so you can salt, pickle and preserve bitter cucumbers. These fruits will be no less tasty than their sweet counterparts.

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