This morning I'm going to sow some aubergine, chilli and cucumber seeds. The sun rises over the houses opposite me now and the bedroom is flooded with warmth and light so it won't be long before I am tending seedlings. I'm going to give the white cucumbers another try. You may recall that last year I grew them and it was like Russian roulette as some were as bitter and nasty as anything. The culprit was the male flowers. If you don't remove them before they pollinate the cucumbers they make the cucumbers bitter. The white fruits are so beautiful to look at that it's worth a bit of time spent twice each day removing the male flowers. I'll keep the two varieties of cucumbers separate too as the green ones don't suffer the same fate if they are pollinated although I do still remove all the male flowers as soon as I can identify which is which.
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| Photo courtesy of Dobies seeds |
I've lifted the image from Dobie's seed company and this is exactly what they look like so you can see how pretty they are.
I remember Dad saying that about the cucumbers. It doesn't apply to every variety though, does it? I've never removed male flowers and never had a bitter 'cumber.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I will be relying on bedding plants from our local and excellent nursery from now on. I've had so many home sown failures! But good for you!
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It was only the white variety that was bitter. My green cucumbers were sweet as anything and so prolific that I gave loads away and still have jars of pickled cucumbers in the fridge.
ReplyDeleteI'll add that to the things I don't know so why I don't garden. I wouldn't know a male form a female flower, but think having both variety of cucumbers is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteI discovered three different varieties of cucumber seed in my stash.
DeleteI never knew that about male flowers. The white cucumbers would look awesome, though
ReplyDeleteThey are beautiful.. properly white and the non bitter ones tasted amazing.
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