I'm not sure Tim! but I will tell you what I have noticed over the years!
OK it applies to flowers Roses and Dahlias in particular!
When I was showing I noticed that sometimes my dahlias had a hard daisy eye or some of my roses never opened fully.
I thought long and hard about this and came up with the following conclusion;
The plants must have stopped growing for a short time ??? Why??
On looking further; I found that it tended to occur when there was a sudden drop in temperature.
We know that within the calyx of a flower all the petals have formed from the outset and are miniscule. We also know that after the calyx bursts we will find that these petals are quite silky to touch, in fact if it were a machine, we would say they were well oiled.
Then we get the drop in temperature I mentioned!!
Voila! the petals stop opening,and
this is where I think the problem occurs, particularly if there is a drying wind.
The petals 'dry out' causing them to stick together (in roses this is called balling, and in Dahlias it is known as Daisy eye) and thats it!!
the flowers just won't open fully.Where the calyx has not burst when this temperature drop took place these flower heads carry on to open natuarally!
Could similar thing be happening with the cucumber flowers we have been discussing? meaning; full pollination can't take place?.......i.e. the calyx broke when the temperature dropped ???
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Another bit of 'useless' information I noticed during these studies;
Have you ever noticed that when a flower opens it is sometimes peppered with holes?
We all tend to jump to the conclusion that earwigs, slugs/snails and caterpillars have had a right go at them :( and you look all over for the culprit and can't find it/them ???
Let me fill you in;
The culprit left some days ago!!
Here's what I think happens;
As I mentioned above all the miniscule petals are preformed in the calyx the earwig,slug/snail,caterpillar takes a bite out of the calyx!!
OK the hole is very small but so are the petals within the calyx and what has happened is; the earwig,slug/snail,caterpillar took a bite out of dozens of petals at the same time.
Then when the flower opens and the petals enlarge so does the hole/s in them :o
so what we have witnessed is;
Insect OrigamiNow you know what I do with some of my time now that I am retired 8)