[eliza]

We have a bumper crop of outdoor cucumbers which have tasted lovely. However, yesterday I picked another one and prepared it as part of a salad but it proved inedible. It was really bitter. I only tried one slice but it made my stomach bloat up and gave me terrible burps all evening. Why do cucumbers go bitter? How can I stop it from happening? Can you tell if a cucumber is likely to be bitter without tasting it first? I wasn't a good experience and I would hate to give any cucmbers away which were like this one.

[Pompey Spud]

Hi...love the Vendee region.

Too large and any hint of yellowing I find gives it away.

[daveylamp]

last time I tasted a bitter cucumber it was on one that had been polinated ie flower left on eversince have always removed flower. Think this is the problem.
Dave.

[eliza]

Thank you for your replies. It was a new green cucumber, no sign of yellowing. I think it did have a flower though so I'll go and remove any other flowers now. Does the same apply to butternut squash?

I tried growing butternut squash in the UK without success but here they have gone mad. The fruits are swelling and hopefully they"ll be edible because you can't buy butternut squash here.

[arugula]

We discussed this in greenhouse growing recently and another problem might be lack of ripeness. I found the skins of our yellow ones on the bitter side at first and this isn't proving a problem now they are ripening more quickly and we have more than just the odd one to eat at a time.

[Vit]

Keep it simple - more watering will give you less bitter and opposite.
There is NOTHING about crosspolination - it's a same plant(i guess)

[Bing]

I thought all flowers that ldon't have little cucumbers behind it should be pinched to avoid bitter cucumber.

[DD.]

On the contrary with outdoor cucumbers.

The rule of thumb is to leave the males on outdoor (ridge) ones and pinch off indoor ones.

[Trillium]

I agree with Vit on the watering. Cukes cannot get enough water, and the more they get, the sweeter they are. I water mine thoroughly almost every day and they're very sweet.

You might also consider your soil type in France. If you're in a chalkier area, it could be affecting flavour.

As for squash, they need heat to grow properly and France is much warmer in summer than the UK.