An experiment in growing sweet cucumbers, not bitter.
A common complaint among home growers of cucumbers is that the cucumbers are frequently bitter. Winter Lake had this problem also, so it was decided to investigate a remedy. The most common cause of bitter cucumbers mentioned in the gardening publications was planting different varieties together. To test this, two different varieties were planted within seven feet of one another. One variety was a burpless and one variety was a Straight Eight pickling cucumber.
The soil the cucumbers were grown in was a good slightly sandy, balanced loam.
The cucumbers were grown together until they had produced several batches of cucumbers. All the cucumbers were bitter to some degree. Some were very bitter, to the point of being inedible. After a few harvests, the burpless cucumber plants were removed and the first cucumbers to grow from new flowers were tasted. There was still a slight bitter taste on the stem end, but otherwise they were fine. The watering schedule had been very even, as bitter cucumbers can also be caused by uneven watering.
During the course of the experiment, various methods were tried to take the bitterness out of the bitter cucumbers. Many methods were tried, but only two were successful. While trying different de-bittering methods, a batch of cucumbers was left in the refrigerator for three days. At the end of the three days, the bitterness was greatly reduced. Some experiments along those lines were conducted and it was found that forty eight hours in the refrigerator greatly reduced the bitterness.
Another method was suggested which was washing the cucumbers. It was found that there was a white film that grew on the cucumbers. This was a natural film that grows under certain conditions, which conditions are not well known to Winter Lake Research Center at this time. It was found that thorough washing of this film reduced the bitterness considerably.
The combination of refrigerating the cucumbers and washing the film off resulted in cucumbers that were not bitter, except at the very stem end.
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