Quick question on Cucumbers

[Crosbie]

Hi everyone...

Is it the same as courgettes - right -

You get the male flowers before the female flowers?

Cheers
Crosbie

[Lurch]

Yes, well mine did.

[Crosbie]

And you take the males off - right?

[ginger ninger]

Yes, but if you leave the male flowers on, you'll get bitter cucumbers, so make sure you take them off, you don't want to ruin all your hard work...good luck

[realfood]

It depends on the variety and type of cucumber you are growing. Do a search on bitter cucumbers for previous threads discussing this point.

[veggielover]

Is putting her shoes on and heading out to pull the boys of the plant!!!! I did not know this!

[Crosbie]

I typed in 'bitter cucumbers' on Google - and had a cursory look at 4 or 5 sites - mostly American - and they're all saying it's stress that causes the bitterness!...mostly caused by drought... sometimes 'insufficient pollination' ??

"Cucurbitacins B & C" - which evolve in the plant when it's under stress.