I love the smell of fresh cucumber, and Nome-grown smells even sweeter!
Since we don't have a greenhouse, we've always been a bit limited when it comes to cucumbers (and tomatoes). These are 'Wautoma' - an American variety I got from the Real Seed Catalogue - which are very productive even outdoors (we have seven more cukes this size already!). But even though they are advertised as 'bitter-free', I'm finding the skins very tough and bitter and have to cut them off, which is a real shame. I wonder if there's anything I can do to get rid of this bitterness - maybe more feeding?The first year I grew veg, I grew some free cucumber 'Moneta' seeds that came with a magazine and they were absolutely AMAZING. Huge, juicy, fragrant, delicious and prolific. But I have never been able to find the seeds again since! The search goes on...
4 comments:
I found Wautoms were mostly fine, but a few had a bitter taste as you describe. I don't know what makes the difference.
I looked this up and found that the causes could be:
Too hot
Uneven watering
Temperature fluctuation
Heredity
Other advice is to pinch out the male flowers - best to do this before they open - if the flowers are pollinated they can produce bitter cucumbers - seems strange as you would think the female flowers needed to be pollinated to produce cucumbers. You can also buy varieties that have all female flowers!
We just grow Burpless Tasty Green and haven't had this problem. Pity you have to skin them as the skin helps digestion so the flavour doesn't repeat
Thanks for the advice, GLA!
A few people seem to have found Moneta seeds as part of a cucumber starter kit from Poundland - let's hope they have stock next season.
I also found them here: http://www.bobby-seeds.com/en/Vegetable-Seeds/Fruit-vegetable-seeds/Cucumber-seeds/Moneta-garden-cucumber::943.html.
Postage is €4 to the UK - guess it depends how much you want them :)
Post a Comment