Topic: Cucumbers

[tim]

Simpson's Sweet Success. All female , in/outdoor. These are indoors.
I normally grow 'minis' - snack size for the g/children. So I didn't anticipate a horny monster when I ordered these, but the spines rub off with a Scotchbrite.
Very quick growing, & tasty!

BUT - by mistake - my other cu is an outdoor one & has male flowers. These should not be removed. Is it likely to cross with SSS & make it bitter?? = Tim

[growmore]

Hi Tim,
            I would think that it is very likely that the cumbers would get cross pollinated especially if they are outside where the bees will do the job quite easily ...

Surprising the new plants that are about. I have never seen any cucumbers that You leave the male flowers on because as you say it makes em bitter and not very palatable to say the least..
But the strain You have must need pollinating if it says "leave the male flowers on " Similiar vane to marrows etc ..
We learn summat every day on here ..
Please keep us posted on how You get on with em ..Cheers ..Jim

 

[john_miller]

Yes, Tim. Commercial greenhouses have mesh over the vents to stop bees coming in and cause cross pollination (which also stops them transferring pollen from the few male flowers on gynoecious [thanks, Phil] varieties).
Growmore, all cucumbers, bar the modern gynoecious varieties (which have only been around since the 1960's), produce male flowers which must be left on, as pollination is required. These types developed millions of years ago.

[growmore]

I have grown cucumbers for over 25 years ..
I only recently moved on to the  hybrid types, femoral etc which do not or should not bear any male flowers ..
I used to grow telegraph and other types which had both male and female flowers ...If the male flowers were left on and the plant was allowed to pollinate, the cucumbers were inedible as they tasted like acrid lemons ..

[tim]

So - I'm in a no-win situation? I have  6 of the above, in full fruit, & 4 of the up & coming Gracius ones with the male flowers.

Do I let it be & risk bitterness on the 6?
Do I ditch the 4 new ones?
Do I pinch out the male flowers & prove science wrong?
We need at least 6 to cope with demand.
Jim - I like 'cumbers' - g/children used to call them 'chewingcumbers'.
And I thought that ALL cus - until the all-female ones came in - had male flowers? And, certainly for outdoor varieties, which are still mostly m/f (??), I  never went around pinching them out?? = Tim

[john_miller]

Never grown them but all the seed catalogues I checked indicate that 'Telegraph', or more properly Telegraph Improved, was bred for greenhouse production. It is well adapted to outdoor production however. What is really confusing is that one web page I found listed thirteen seperate intoductions, going as far back as 1813, that the breeder had named 'Telegraph' (I posted something before about breeders trading on name recognition- it is an even older practice than I realised)!
Tim, you aren't trying to prove science wrong, you are trying to contradict experience! Of course, you could pinch out the male flowers on the outdoor ones (rather you than me) but, in passing, hand pollinate them. With your greenhouse, covering the vents would be impractical?