Cucumber Plants Help

balloo_2

I have 2 Cucumber plants which have lots of flowers on them but I have been told some are male and some are female All the flowers are yellow how do I tell which ones are which so I can remove the male and use them to pollenate the female ones.

If I miss removing some male flowers what will happen to the cucumbers that grow.

davemorton

Link should help with the flower ID.
I believe that if you are not growing a hybrid, then the cucumbers can go bitter if the flower gets pollinated.


http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c182/G4IAR/femaleflower.jpg&imgrefurl=http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php%3Ftopic%3D58414&usg=__mD9ACw5U7sBhPGBfXDor6w8xlhY=&h=500&w=375&sz=24&hl=en&start=5&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=wuqRUewuWTvnrM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMale%2Bor%2Bfemale%2Bcucumber%2Bflowers%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26cr%3DcountryUK%257CcountryGB%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1,ctr:countryUK%257CcountryGB

mcgrow

Female flowers develop into fruit, so as the photo above shows, the female ones have a mini version of the fruit behind them, whereas male flowers just have a stem.

Farway

You really do need to know what variety you are growing

In the past it was required to remove male flowers to prevent pollination [and bitter cucumbers]

However, with new breeding many require pollination in order to develop the fruit, outdoor "ridge" type for example

So, unless you know the variety you cannot know whether to remove male flowers or not, bitter or no cucs is the question only you can answer by checking your seed packet

PS, no need to remove male to pollinate, if in open air, or greenhouse left open, the inscts & air movement will do the job for you

TonyMMM

Picked my first outdoor cucumber today (variety...marketmore) - delicious !

Only problem is I have 3 plants, absolutely covered in fruits - I expect I am going to become very fond of cucumber over the next couple of months.

fleursmum

Oh TonyMMM, whats your secret with your cuckes :A? I have had the finger of death with all mine! :eek:.

devonmum_3

This is my first year growing veg, I was thinking I had done really well with my cucumber plants as they are covered in flowers!
But just picked my first cucumber and it was really bitter I didn't know about male and female flowers so i might have hundreds of bitter cucumbers now :sad:
you live and learn!