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Confused about cucumbers!

Good morning fellow growers. This is my first year growing Fruit and Veg on an allotment. I have in my greenhouse Cucumbers (Telegraph Improved). According to the packet it's telling me to remove male flowers before they open to avoid bitter fruits. Firstly how do I tell which are male and female flowers? and secondly I thought you needed to pollinate the female to produce the fruit? I'm a little confused.

Any help?

Posts

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,617

    Pollinated cucumbers will be bitter. You can get all female varieties, but with old varieties like telegraph, you have to remove the males. Female flowers have a tiny cucumber at the back of the flower. Male flowers  don't. Its easy to tell once you have seen them side by side.

  • Rodgy-dodgeRodgy-dodge Posts: 115

    Thanks Fb, I'll look at them a bit closely all the ones I can see atm have little cucumbers forming. Do the male flowers tend to stay closer to the main stem?

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