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Recent change to all female cucumber flowers

Alix.tongAlix.tong Posts: 3
edited August 2020 in Problem solving
Hi! I’m new to growing veg and new to the forum and I have a question about my Wisconsin cucumbers that I can’t find an answer to. At the beginning of the summer my plants had both male and female flowers and a couple of lovely cucumbers grew on each plant - I’ve just picked the first one 🙂. However, for the last few weeks, all the flowers have been female and the little fruits are just dying straight away! I have a couple of plants in a very open greenhouse - more like shelves with a cover which I’m leaving open and a couple completely outside and they all behaving the same. The plants seem very healthy and do have plenty of female flowers.  Does anyone know why the type of flowers has changed and how I can try and get some male flowers to appear? 
Many thanks in advance for any insight here! 

Posts

  • granmagranma Posts: 1,933
    I can't help with the lack of male flowers but if you do get a male flower what Id  advise is for you to take on self pollinating. I've used a male flower to pollinate 3 female's resulting in a cuc number each time.a bit fidley  but worth it.
  • ShepherdsBarnShepherdsBarn Posts: 401
    Mmm ... I thought that you were supposed to remove all the male flowers on a cucumber otherwise the ripened cucumber will taste bitter. Am I wrong in this? My cucumber plants have not produced any male flowers at all. Would they be self-pollinating? This is my first year for planting cucumbers for many years.
  • Singing GardenerSinging Gardener Posts: 1,237
    Yes, I also though that male flowers should be removed if they appear. I only grow all female varieties though.
  • Alix.tongAlix.tong Posts: 3
    I think there are different types of cucumber but on this one the only cucumbers that have matured have been from when there were male and female flowers and they taste really good!
    I have been manually pollinating courgettes and pumpkins and this has worked well! 
  • granmagranma Posts: 1,933
    The packet of F1 seeds I had used said an odd male flower might appear and if so to leave it . .which I did and this is what I used to polinate  the first fruit. seemed to start the fruiting and no more male flowers grew .but following this  I had lots of fruit. None was bitter either. 
  • Alix.tongAlix.tong Posts: 3
    Thanks for all the replies. The last one is interesting and sounds possible - it’s just a shame that none of mine have grown since the first few - and I have an awful lot of flowers/tiny baby cucumbers! I wonder if it could be anything else! 
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