Our cucumbers grew well but were very bitter. I pulled the whole plant. We live in Antioch,Ca and I want to know when can I plant another type of cucumber that is not bitter? What type would you recommend.
Our zucchini and tomatoes are perfect.

In general, any of the varieties described as being "burpless" are not bitter, or least not too bad. Some others you might try are:

'Diva' is reliable, productive, and has a nice mild flavor
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus 'Diva')

'Rocky' has small fruits, but it produces a LOT of them and they have excellent flavor
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus 'Rocky')

My current favorite is 'Swing'
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus 'Swing')

The white cucumbers are never bitter. Our best seller at farmer's market too. Same with the lemon cucumber.

White cucumbers, Arlene? What kinds are those? I don't think I've seen them.
My first cukes this year were just a trifle bitter, so I sliced them and soaked them for a few hours in a bit of salted water with some sugar in it. Tasted good to me!

The ones I did this year were a miniature white cucumber from Johnny's, and they were and still are, on sale!
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7...

I had a different variety before but I can't remember which one. I think I got the seeds as a gift. I like to try different things for market and people weren't buying them because they were different until we gave tastes. Then they were SOLD!!! So mild and never bitter. Don't even have to peel them. If they get big they do turn a pale yellow but still never bitter.

Now I remember! Burpee! A free gift from them.

http://www.burpee.com/heirloom...

I grow North Carolina Heirloom Pickling cucumbers, I originally got my seed from Sand Hill Preservation Center. They are never bitter and are good pickled or eaten fresh. Because they are never bitter they're a big hit with the grand-kids.

Is is too late to plant cucumber

Where are you located? I plan on doing a small second planting this week. I am just south of Atlanta, zine 8b

Nancy, according to our Planting Calendar for Antioch, CA you can plant cucumbers up until late August.

abhege said:Where are you located? I plan on doing a small second planting this week. I am just south of Atlanta, zine 8b

Arlene, will you be planting seeds, or plants?

I've also heard from my organic farmer friend that cukes need water,water,water to avoid getting bitter. Same with lettuce.

I'll plant seeds. So, none of my cucumbers should be bitter this year because we've had rain every day for weeks!

I saw a joke that said, "We only got rain twice this summer. Once for 45 days and again for 30 days."

I have grown the White wonder from Burpee and it is as good as they say . Never found them to be bitter and produced well.

Nancybito...

Glad to hear from Dave that you have plenty of time to plant more cukes in your area. In addition to the suggested varieties Kent gave above I'd recommend any of the "burpless" varieties as they tend to have less cucurbitacin in them, which is the compound that carries the bitterness.

Many cuke varieties will produce an excessive amount of cucurbitacin due to environmental factors (e.g. excessive heat and/or drought, extreme temperature changes). Your first cukes might have suffered but I bet if you had left the plants the cukes to follow might've been much more tasty if you watered regularly and/or mulched, and crossing fingers your local temps don't soar excessively. The only time I've heard of a cuke plant consistently producing bitter cukes was when the parent plant the seeds came from were crossed with one of the many wild cucurbits.

Oh yeh, oftentimes the bitterness is mostly in the stem end of the cuke; cutting that end off and eating the rest might give you something much more tasty! And as you may know, just peeling the cuke will reduce the bitterness as well.

Wishing you a good future harvest! And a hearty hello and WELCOME to ATP!

Shoe (with plenty of cukes cut up with sliced onions, crushed/diced garlic, a bit of dill, soaking in a vinegar solution and chilling in the fridge. Yummy!~)

Welcome to ATP Nancy. Sorry to be so late but only saw this now. In fact only discovered the ask a question forum now. I hope you do join us in the Edibles And Preserving Forum.
http://garden.org/forums/view/...

And not too late to plant cucumbers. I just did a late season planting yesterday which I had started from seed.

A really interesting variety of cucumbers new to me this year are Camilla. Does not require pollination as it is an all-female parthenocarpic cucumber. Sets fruits like crazy. Tastes wonderful.

http://www.gourmetseed.com/pro...

Want to get adventurous? Try one of the Asian group of Cucumbers. They love the hot weather and taste wonderful. Full of flavor and never bitter. Kind of odd looking but that is okay. I love to grow them on a trellis to keep the fruit growing straight but then I trellis all my cucumber varieties.

My favorite of the Asian Cukes is Suyo Long.
http://www.burpee.com/heirloom...