Cucumber question!

[fastlearner]

Hi,

I'm growing a couple of cucumber plants under cover this year and I've been given some conflicting advice! My neighbour has told me you should only eat the male fruit (how can you tell?!) and another person has said this isnt true!! Can anyone offer any advice?

(Ps - the cucumbers are standard type similar to those you buy in the shops)

[Demeter]

There's no such thing as male fruit! The fruit forms behind a female flower after it has been pollinated by pollen from a male flower. Unless you have one of the modern all-female types that don't need pollinating.
I think your neighbour is confused.

[lynda66]

either that or your neighbour has a dirty mind

[Paulottie]

I think your all confused. With frame cucumbers(greenhouse varieties eg Telegraph improved) you will find that there are 2 sorts of flower as Demeter says. One with a little fruit behind it(female). These will grow pollinated or not....Infact, You should REMOVE all male flowers daily as pollination causes bitterness. With the all female varieties the stupid price is offset by not having to undertake this chore.

[squashysu]

hi there

i have cucumber plants as well and all i can see is female flowers with little cucumbers growing, will i have seen male flowers before the female ones? i know for a fact that these seeds werent expensive, but perhaps they were i cant remember!! oops!! too many seeds.

Thanks for your help

SS

[vegnut]

With the all female varieties the stupid price is offset by not having to undertake this chore.

I definately agree there Paulottie. A couple of quid for four seeds. Sheesh

[fastlearner]

Many thanks for all the advice - I tried growing cucumbers last year and they were very bitter - so perhaps as paulottie suggests i will remove the male flowers... will let you know how i get on .....

[Demeter]

I think your all confused. With frame cucumbers(greenhouse varieties eg Telegraph improved) you will find that there are 2 sorts of flower as Demeter says. One with a little fruit behind it(female). These will grow pollinated or not....Infact, You should REMOVE all male flowers daily as pollination causes bitterness. With the all female varieties the stupid price is offset by not having to undertake this chore.

Not wanting to be contrary - but - although I've heard this lots of times about pollination being unnecessary / causing bitterness, it doesn't seem consistent with lots of the information I've seen. From what I've read (and this is just on the internet, pretty much, so not Writ In Stone), the reason for bitterness seems to be excessive levels of a bitter substance called cucurbitacin, which can be caused by various things such as drought or environmental stress as well as apparently genetic factors - but none of the sites I've read cited pollination as a cause, indeed most of them stated that cucumbers need to be pollinated for the fruit to grow!

And the reason for breeding plants with fewer or no male flowers was, apparently, that the older varieties produce 10-20 male flowers for every female one and the plant breeders decided that yields would increase if the plant wasn't wasting as much energy on male flowers.

As I say, this is based on Google not my non-existent plant science degree, so I don't want to contradict the experts and maybe I'm missing something - but??!!

[EDIT - Just re-readed your post Paulottie and noticed that you were talking specifically about frame cucumbers - do you mean the all-female ones? Is that a specific group of varieties that doesn't need pollinating? Confused about how the fruit grows without being pollinated - but willing to trust to the wonders of nature if you say it's true lol.]

Here are some of the websites I've seen this information on. Most of them repeat the same information, I've just cited lots so you know I've not got it off some dodgy article on wikipedia

Bitter Cucumbers A Temporary Problem
Bitter Cucumbers
Cuke Bitterness
Steps to avoid bitter cucumbers | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET.com
Cucumber
Cucumbers bitter? Why and what to do about it
Watering, fertilizing, and caring for garden Cucumber
AZ Master Gardener Manual: Cucumbers
Grow Your Own Cucumbers
Grow Gynoecious Cucumbers to Get the Most Production

[Demeter]

i know for a fact that these seeds werent expensive, but perhaps they were i cant remember!!

They don't increase the price of a packet much, they just reduce the number of seeds you get for your money - so it's easy not to notice that they are more expensive - at least until you come to sow them and realise you've got b-all seeds in the packet lol

They got me that way with my courgettes (F1 goldrush, about 6 in packet for about £2, goldrsch is right!!) - not a problem as I only wanted 2 plants, sowed 2 seeds, got 2 plants - but it did make me think I should maybe start reading the bit that tells you how many seeds are in the packet *before* buying, instead of just assuming that the standard number of seeds per pack is "loads"...

[squashysu]

thanks demeter

cor what a con!!!! the thing is though, is that the only flowers i have on these cucs have cuces growing behind them, so i must have the all female ones!!!!

very strange indeed, i cant even remember buying the seeds, i know i had lots of seeds in them and that i think i have some away to someone on here, oh well, this is all a learning curve and now i know about different varieties etc, then i will note more for next year, as long as they grow and are tasty then i dont care what they are called apart from "delicious" LOL

thanks for your help SS

[Alice]

Don't listen to your neighbour Fastlearner. Obviously got the story all jumbled up.
Good luck with your cucumbers.

[finney]

fastlearner,
just stick to growing female its a lot easier,im growing telegraph improved in my greenhouse,seeds were from B&Q,all female and they are huge.happy growing

[JILLY JACKSON]

Boy did i get a good deal then,I bought 1 cucumber plant £1.49.from haskins i am growing it in a container outside and picked and ate the first one yesterday.It was really sweet and there is another one ready for picking ,plus lots of other smaller ones at different sizes.If i had bought a packet it would have cost a lot more and i reckon that this one plant will keep us going for months!Do you think that if later on i save a few seeds that i would get a good plant or two for next year?I havent had to pick off any flowers as it said on the label when i bought it.

[Tam]

RHS: Grow your own Veg

I have certainly always removed the male flowers of my cucumbers and have never had problems with bitterness. The above RHS article is quite clear about male flower removal.

[gojiberry]

Doubt if your saved cucumber seed would be any good as it is probably an F1.

Ian