GS Family, I just learned yesterday that there are male and female cucumber plants and how to tell the difference...LOL What I thought was the actual cuc was the female (i'm still laughing as i type this)..All these years!!!! I just happened to watch a youtube garden show and she told "me" in detail which is which and how to pollinate the cucumbers...I kept wondering why it would fall off for no reason....I felt soooooo stupid that i had no choice but to laugh at myself...our cat was looking at me like i was crazy. moderator's note: added a more descriptive title to topic
NO, no, not stupid! You are learning. Stupid is the 30-year-old woman who thought you grew dill pickles, not made them. I had to convince her cucumbers didn't come infused with dill!
What kind are you growing? I plant Straight Eight's and have never had to do pollination by hand. There are male and female blooms on the vines, the first flowers are male and will drop off without being pollinated but the rest of the blooms will be both male and female so the pollination occurs naturally.
cuke blossoms UNLESS...you buy cuke seeds called gynoecious and parthenocarpic. (mouthful, huh?) They have only female blooms, need no pollination and every bloom makes a cuke. Seeds are a might expensive tho. :-D
toni, they are called spacemaster (bush-type)from ferry-morse. marlingardner: Too funny!!! I can see her pleading her case!!
I defend the uneducated woman. LOL If one has no experience, one might think cucumbers have a dill taste. The Cukemelon has a lemony taste. LOL The Dill plant tastes of Dill.
I just bought a packet of cuke seeds that cost me 32.00. 25 seeds in the packet. they are a seedless burpless variety for the greenhouse/ they cannot be pollinated or they will develop crooked/misshapen fruits and have seeds. they are parthenocarpic cucumbers.
Toni, we grow straight 8s also--very reliable in our climate and are good for both slicing and pickling. Carolyn, I can see why you'd pay that for cuke seeds--you go to farmers' markets and have customers who need the burpless varieties. Our cukes are just about finished. I picked four today, but with the really hot weather setting in I think those were the last ones we'll get. We give vegetables to a little old lady who thinks if the veggies are at the grocery, we ought to have them in the garden. I've explained that we don't have December tomatoes, but she still thinks we are holding out on her!
no way would I pay that just for eating them, Jane. since I sell them I can recoup the cost and then decide if they are worth the investment. they are going in a house all by themselves next week. screened sides and door. no cucumber beetles on them or bees to pollinate them.
Carolyn, that sounds like the variety that I need for my screened in patio. Nothing is giving me any fruit because they need to be pollinated which i seem to can't do, even with the blossom set spray. I am about to pull everything (incl my Rapunzel tomato) and grow veggies in about a month or two, that don't require pollination while we live there..onions, lettuces, radishes, FLOWERS.
Hummer, the variety is called Carmen I bought them from Stokes. your rapunzel doesn't need pollinators either. it needs you to either shake the plant or take an electric toothbrush and vibrate the stem near the blossom. if it is a screened porch you may not have enough light to form fruit though. or it may be too humid to set fruit.
It's getting a lot of light but i think the humidity is affecting them. Like you said before....get cuttings and get ready for Fall. A tiny bit cooler than the summer here.
I didn`t even know there was such an animal ! My National Pickle cukes have never let me down so I will stick with those.
