Me too! I am new and mine are bitter...maybe they just aren't fully ripe yet??? Someone help us plz...thanks!!

The most common cause is insufficient water or inconsistent watering from fruit set to just before harvesting. Cukes need consistent soil moisture levels while developing.

And as days become especially hot in mid to late summer, providing the consistent soil levels of moisture gets harder to do. That results in bitterness being more of a common problem this time of year.

Dave

Heat stress will do it too.

I found that my Eureka and Country Fair cukes produced fewer bitter ones than my neighbor's unnamed slicers, but I had some.

The Armenians really are completely free of bitterness and they've been loving the heat. (Technically, they aren't a cuke at all but rather a melon but they seem to be good for any cucumber purpose other than pickling).

last year we grew a green house cuke that was not bitter and the skin was eatable also. the name is Telegraph. it is an heirloom. we saved seed and it is the same this year.

of course it is easier to keep the ground moisture constant in the green house.

i think shade would help.

this year my Boston pickling cuks are not bitter. that is due to them getting more water.

i planted them on the top of my garden. they are about 10 feet from the potato patch. i water my garden by flooding and the potatoes are sprinkled and the top three rows on my garden gets double watered. well not quite. the potatoes get it every 5 days and i water every 2-3 days depending on the temp.

the bottom line is they do get a lot of water.

WM

From what I understand, it's all a guestimate as to why cukes get bitter. I noticed that as the season went on and the plants got 'tired,'(but of course, as Dave says, this was at the heat of the season where watering was heavy and almost daily and STILL they dried out fast) the cukes started to get bitter. I had several bush ones that were waaaayyy over ripe and they were not bitter, but on the same plant a few weeks later, when the bottom of the vines were showing some age, sure enough, all cukes on the vine were bitter.

It's a gamble at best. Cut a few slices from the middle of the cuke. If they're slippery or foul smelling, toss them. There's nothing worse than believing that pickling will solve the problem and giving said pickled cucumbers to a neighbor.

Hopefully she'll talk to me in a week or two. :)

I think that Dave said it righ; lack of watering is one of the causes for bitter cukes.

There is a way might help to get some of the bitterness which is mostly at the stem end. Do this
With a sharp knife cut about an inche from stem end and keep rubbing the cut surfaces together, with slight pressure. Some cream will come out. keep doing it until no more cream comes out.
Some , or most, of the bitterness will come out with that cream.
Give it a try.

Cyrus,

Do you mean cut an inch of the cucumber off at the stem end that rub those two pieces together?

Thars just what he meant.

It's kinda funny, my Grandfather (who has been gone some 20 years now) was a chemist. He INSISTED that every cucumber have the ends rubbed together like that to "get the poison out" or he wouldn't touch them.

SOmeone told me the same thing and it works, last year ours were bitter and I tried it. This year they've been pretty good.

Do you leave the stem end on the vine, or do it after it is cut off the vine? I tried it last night, but didn't see any cream. How long do I do it for? Will it work on cukes that have been in the fridge for a few days? I'm going to try again now.

Maybe my cukes are extra bitter. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. I took one from the fridge and "milked" it, but it didn't seem to help. Am I not pushing hard enough? Should I rinse the milk off, or let it stay?

I always blamed inconsistent watering on bitter cucs, but this year we've had rain every couple of days. And it hasn't been too hot either. But some of my County Fair cucs are still bitter! The skin is definitely bitter (and tough), so I usually remove it. I have no clue why some of mine are bitter this year, since they shouldn't be!

The Armenians really are completely free of bitterness and they've been loving the heat. (Technically, they aren't a cuke at all but rather a melon but they seem to be good for any cucumber purpose other than pickling).

I agree with this statement, the Armenian melons make wonderful cukes, handle the heat well, don't have to be skinned and are never bitter. Here's my favorite.

Ok! I have to make my point more clear:

_ Pick the cuke as normally you do.
-- cut about 1 inch from stem end of it. Now you have two pieces, the long one and the other very short
-- Rub the cut faces of them together, in a sort of orbital motion. Apply little force while doint it so there is no air between them. That circular rubbing motion will work like a sucktion pump, bringign out the oily/creamy stuff that contains bitterness. You have to do this with fresh cukes not 10 days old(Grin!)
By the way, that creamy stuff that comes out is the best skin lotion there is. So do not through it away.

Another point about bitterness;
There is a thing called"Bitterness Principal", which says that when edible fruits/vegies are bitter they stimulate the liver/vile(?spelling) to inject some more of the stuff, to help digest food better. So, a little bitterness is not all that bad. Look at the Asians; They cook and it someting called "Bitter Melon" which actually is like a cucumber (same family of cucurbitas). And it does not bother them at all and they enjoy it too.
Cyrus