Do you remove all male cucumber flowers?

**Glutton4...** · 10-06-2009, 08:47 PM

I read that you remove the male flowers that appear before the female ones. Surely you need both for pollination, or am I being thick?! (Not unheard-of!)

Mine all flowered like mad because they were pot-bound, so I removed most of the flowers as they were all male. I planted them out today (between showers) so hopefully they'll be happier now.

**Bramble_killer** · 10-06-2009, 10:56 PM

the packet says to leave the male flowers for pollination but the advice from here seems to be to remove all the male flowers so they don't turn bitter.

I've no idea

**starloc** · 10-06-2009, 11:39 PM

It depends on the variety, some need polinating, some fruit without polination, i cant find out which varietys do and dont need polinating either!, all my seeds came with no instructions, ive found out that marketmore need polinating
Searching the net, it seems to be that outdoor or ridge cucumbers seem to need polination and indoor/greenhouse varietys dont and should have the other flowers taken off, if the packet says the variety needs polinating i wouldnt argue

not sure if this is true, and not sure what varietys are outdoor or indoor ones!

All the sites ive found say that you get loads of the pollen bearing flowers first, to make sure theres enough pollen round to form the fruits, i thought mine were going wong when i got no cucumber ones, just the flower ones

I have also seen that if polinated they only get bitter at the stem end just under the skin,were the seeds are, not all the way along them,
again... im not sure if its true, as ive never eaten a cucumber i wouldnt know if one was different than it should be or not (and im not going to eat one to find out the differences in them either! they smell awfull)

**kentvegplot** · 11-06-2009, 07:15 AM

The advice from T&M is to leave the flowers on - so personally I would follow that advice.

Not all varieties need the male flowers - but it looks like this one does.

**Matt.** · 11-06-2009, 08:32 AM

I would leave them on. It saves you a job too!

**Alison** · 11-06-2009, 12:30 PM

As already said, it depends on the variety. With some types, if the fruit is fertilised then it tastes bitter. I grow an all female type and an old fashioned type that needs fertilising (most ridge cucs are like this and yours looks like that type on the web page) as I'm too lazy / unobservant to remove any. If you look at the T&M web site (RHS Vegetable Collection : Cucumber : Masterpiece (Seeds)) it says not to remove so follow their instructions.

**Bramble_killer** · 11-06-2009, 02:04 PM

Thank you all

, bit of a panic as everyone on here seems to be so knowledgeable and the advice was contrary to the seed packet.

**ForkHandles** · 11-06-2009, 03:38 PM

Hi,

I'm growing 2 varieties in my GH, Marketmore and Carmen F1.

With Marketmore I understand I just leave them to 'get on with it' but with Carmen F1 T&M's advice is:

Under stress conditions, male flowers may be produced and these should be removed

So, no problem, any male flowers will be removed, but from previous posts, if I understand correctly, certain cucumbers will become bitter if they are allowed to be pollinated. Does this mean that even though I remove Carmen male flowers the female flowers could be pollinated by the Marketmore males therefore making bitter cucumbers or do the Carmen cucumbers only go bitter if their males are left on the plant and has nothing to do with pollination

Many thanks

ForkHandles

**Bigmallly** · 17-07-2013, 02:18 PM

I hope this is an attempt to resuscitate this thread Vikki as its 4 years old...........

**Bill HH** · 23-07-2013, 01:48 PM

Frankly this subject is driving me nuts, I have searched web sites for days regarding piching out male flowers.
Some respected sources say do pich out the male flowers particularly indoor ones, other sources say dont bother it makes no difference. Why should being in or out make any difference?

Has there never been a proper scientific study done on this?

Bill

**Thelma Sanders** · 23-07-2013, 01:56 PM

It depends solely on the variety - not where they are grown.

Some are hybrids are bred not to need pollination, and are bitter if pollinated.

Others are open pollinated varieties and need pollination to set fruit.

Moral of the story - always know what variety you are growing and what you need to do with the male flowers - and never mix varieties that need pollination with those that don't

**rustylady** · 23-07-2013, 01:58 PM

What variety are you growing Bill?

**Bill HH** · 24-07-2013, 10:09 PM

Originally posted by rustylady View Post

What variety are you growing Bill?

I have burpless in my greenhouse and then all female variaties outside (Cant remeber the name tut tut)
The indoor burpless have loads of male flowers which I have been painstakingly pinching off, they also have loads of cucumbers (I ate the first one yesterday, it was gorgeous)

The outdoor female ones have dozens of cucumbers on them and of course no male flowers to be found.

Thanks for taking interest.

Bill

**Greenfingerpaula** · 16-08-2013, 11:10 AM

I'm growing Marketmore and left all the flowers, I have probably 20 plus cucumbers growing now, largest being 6 inches at the moment - not bad for my first attempt from seed!!!!

I picked 1 and tried it this morning though and doesn't really taste like they're quite ready so I'm going to let them grow a couple more inches

they've been grown jn a trough planter kept outside in a table against the fence...

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