Stress And Cucumbers

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

It's not just humans that experience stress. Plants, falling into unusual conditions for them, also become discouraged, start to get sick, or activate their protective abilities. Cucumbers are no exception, responding to unfavorable living conditions with the bitterness of the fruit

Originally from India

Having moved to Russia from the warm Indian tropics, the cucumber could not even imagine that the air temperature could change dramatically during the day; that for three or four weeks not a single life-giving drop of moisture can be shed from the divine heavens, and the sun at the same time does not mercifully burn down, burning the leaves. From such unpredictability of the weather and the inability of the cucumber to change behavior so quickly, adapting to the vagaries of the climate, he falls into stress.

Cucurbitacins

Since a cucumber cannot go to a doctor for help, he has to defend himself on his own. It protects itself by releasing one of the saponins (nitrogen-free glycosides of plant origin) called "Cucurbitacin".

Cucurbitacins are tasteless, sweet, and very bitter. It was the latter that cucumber chose for defense. When he is not satisfied with the living conditions in order to protect himself from possible enemies who are just waiting for his weakness, he accumulates bitter cucurbitacins in the fruits. This bitterness acts as a repellent, that is, it repels insects, and at the same time a person, from the plant.

By the way, cucurbitacins accumulate not only cucumbers, but also melon crops such as pumpkin and zucchini. With the normal development of the plant, their number is small and is not felt when eating vegetables. But in stressful situations, more substance is produced, and vegetables become bitter.

Like many saponins, cucurbitacins are water soluble. Therefore, bitter cucumbers do not have to be thrown into the trash can. You can hold them in water, then the bitterness will decrease, and the cucumber will acquire a pleasant crunch when chewing it.

Experts say that bitter cucumbers can be safely salted and pickled. Until then, when they are served at the table, the bitterness will go away from them.

A reason for stress

There are several reasons for the stress of cucumbers:

* Irregular and unscrupulous watering (you need to water it twice - in the morning and in the evening, with warm water).

* A sharp drop in air temperature (at night it is necessary to cover the garden with cucumbers warmer).

* Duration of contact with direct sunlight (in the tropics, cucumbers are used to hiding in the shade of trees, and therefore cannot stand direct sunlight. Therefore, the cucumber garden should be shaded as much as possible.).

* Poor quality soil (the soil should be rich in nitrogen, loose and moist. Do not watered with fresh mullein).

* Poor-quality seeds or varieties prone to the accumulation of cucurbitacin (breeders have bred hybrid varieties of cucumbers that are not bitter).

Stress-resistant cucumbers

Varieties have been developed that are not afraid of stress and do not accumulate bitterness in order to avenge poor growing conditions.

For cultivation in greenhouses, experts recommend the following varieties of cucumbers: Carnival, Ryabinushka, Abundant, Topolek, Electron. Hybrid varieties: Buyan, Green Wave, Grasshopper, Boy with a finger, Maryina Roshcha, Ant, Chistye Prudy.

Such popular varieties as Donskoy, Nezhensky, Vyaznikovsky, Muromsky are prone to stress. But with proper care, that is, a little shade, moist and nitrogen-rich soil, when grown outdoors, the chances of growing bitter cucumbers are minimal.

To protect the crop from bitter cucumbers, even before the fruit appears, you can determine on which plant you can expect bitterness. To do this, you need to chew a leaf from a bush. The bitter leaf will tell you that the cucumbers will be bitter here. So we need to figure out the reasons and take action.