cucumbers

[matowakan]

cant answer about picking off male flowers! I read somewhere that if you dont it is possible to get cross pollination from bees if outside resulting in funny shaped cucumbers!!

[Flo]

Nope, the problem is that if you don't pick of the male flowers and the pollinators visit both male and female ones, you will get bitter cucumbers.

[Annpan]

I have never heard of that, and I looked up all my veg books (including the 'expert' book) and there is no mention of it... are we sure it isn't just a old wives tale?

[greenfingers]

it depends what veriety you are growing, are you growing a glasshouse (indoor, look like the type of cucumber you can buy in a supermarket) veriety or a ridge (outdoor, fruit tend to be smaller and spikyer) veriety

glasshouse verieties are usually bred either to be all female flowered (no idear how they do that) or tend to be slightly bitter if the males are left on

ridge verieties do not suffer from this bitterness and will do much better for leaving the males on

[Millymollymandy]

Surely with the ridge variety you need the male flowers in order for them to pollinate the females, otherwise you won't get any fruit - same as for melons, courgettes etc. That's why we get upset when we only have male flowers at the beginning of the season!

[Annpan]

I read the instructions on my ridge cucumbers yesterday (a heritage variety) and it said "our cucumbers produce male and female flowers, the female need the male to pollinate. Do not remove the male flowers." - I'm paraphrasing as I don't have the packet in front of me, but it said don't pick them off.... which seem obvious to me.

[JulieSherris]

OK, so being a bit of a book geek, I bought the seed saving book as recommended by the Real Seed Co....

This is what Sue Stickland say about cucumber flowers: (I've picked out the important bits)
Cucumbers have separate male & female flowers... Insects, particularly bees, usually carry pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers either on the same plant, or on different plants.
With traditional ridge varieties, this pollination must occur in order to obtain fruit.
With traditional greenhouse varieties, better fruit is produced without pollination, so for an edible crop this is usually prevented by picking off male flowers or excluding insects from the glasshouse (not easy!). The female flowers then produce fruit spontaneously, but this is seedless.

So there you go.....

As an aside here.... I was taught as a young girl to leave the cucumbers on the vine until they start getting VERY fat & the skins start to turn yellow/white-ish..... I know we harvest cucumbers when they are still dark green, but really, they aren't ripe at that point.
If you leave a few of the fruits on longer this year & then try them, you'll be pleasantly surprised!
My mum used to have the cucumber 'repeats', but if she ate properly ripened fruits, she never got that at all.
The cucumbers are a lot sweeter as well..... also, for a cheats melon, you can chunk the cuke, then sprinkle it with sugar - delicious!!

[Millymollymandy]

I grow the ridge ones and apart from the first one which I usually harvest underripe (cos I'm desperate!) they do tend to be harvested when very fat and the skin is streaky. If they start turning yellow they go a bit too juicy and soft for my liking. Chickens love them though! Anyway that was interesting info Julie and will explain why ridge cucumbers have big seeds whereas 'supermarket' cucumbers don't!

[prison break fan]

I pinched the tops out of my cuees and couldn't bear to throw them away, so I put them in a glass of water and they have all rooted! Do you think I could pot them on? pbf.

[Millymollymandy]

I don't see why not if they've got roots! My cucumbers are up just 5 days after sowing!

[SarahJane]

I am not doing very well with my cucs this year. I started off well. Two "normal" cucs and 6 crystal lemon cucs. They all germinated and grew big enough to pot on. I started them off inside on the window sill and then when I potted them on I put them in the unheated greenhouse. Within days I lost the 2 normal ones and I am only left with 3 of the yellow round ones. They just withered and died. Does anyone know why? Also, the crystal lemon variety are an outdoor cuc. Do you think it is too soon to put them out?

[prison break fan]

I wouldn't put them out just yet, I am in West Sussex and we have just had the second hailstorm of the day!! pbf.

[Annpan]

I have lost 5 so far got 7 more germinating but I am not optimistic.

Same with me, as with SJ, they just withered and died, despite being fed and watered and in the PT.

My pickling cucumbers have germinated nicely, and look very healthy

[Millymollymandy]

It was probably too cold in an unheated greenhouse 'up north'! They need to be hardened off slowly, i.e. bring them back inside into the warmth at nighttime or it will be too much of a shock to them. Now is about the time to start hardening off tender plants to plant out at the end of May.