I'm doing Marketmore too OL!! But I read somewhere that picking off the male flowers is unnecessary and they pollinate the female ones, and the whole business about the cucumbers being 'pippy' if you leave the male flowers on will be irrelevant in this case. So I haven't bothered. Wait and see eh?
I wish it would make growing tips clearer on the packet, all info in books and on the internet says unless they are a female variety the males must be removed Gardening can be so confusing!!
I will trust my friends on here and leave all the flowers on, they look prettier anyway
Well if you get a bitter, pippy first cucumber, you will know what to do - in fact if I get one, I'll let you know! Our first one is about the size of a small gherkin now (you may remember I planted far too early in the spring and have ended up with some rather precocious and not particularly sturdy salad plants as a result!)
You may need to remove all the flowers, fruits as well on the lower 2 sets of leaves or the plant will be busy making friuts and not growing into a nice big plant. Once its seeded it will think its job is done.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
In the AT book I have, he talks about removing side shoots from the bottom 2 foot of the plant so I suspect this covers flowers too. Also he then talks about nipping out the end of the shoots about 2 leaves after a baby cucumber so that the energy goes into growing the cucumber.
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OL sounds like a lot of Greek salads over the summer, toms & cumbers
I will trust my friends on here and leave all the flowers on, they look prettier anyway
You may need to remove all the flowers, fruits as well on the lower 2 sets of leaves or the plant will be busy making friuts and not growing into a nice big plant. Once its seeded it will think its job is done.
That's an interesting point - perhaps I should pickle that gherkin now then?
In the AT book I have, he talks about removing side shoots from the bottom 2 foot of the plant so I suspect this covers flowers too. Also he then talks about nipping out the end of the shoots about 2 leaves after a baby cucumber so that the energy goes into growing the cucumber.
Thanks for the tip, I'd missed that in the book