Lots of Male flowers on cucumbers!

[Maddie106]

I'm growing "Burpless Tasty Green". The plants outside seem to be "standing still", but look healthy.( I'm just waiting on them!)

One plant in my frame and one inside on a windowsill are very healthy and rampant, but have lots of MALE flowers, but s*d all female flowers!!

The few female flowers on the frame/inside plants are now shrivelling up.
I've been careful with watering and am feeding once a week with tomato food.

Questions
1) Should I pollinate female flowers on the frame/inside plants with a male flower?
2) Why have the b*ggers produced loads of male flowers and so few female flowers?

I'd be grateful for advice please because I was mega pleased to have germinated these little darlings from seed and potted them on without them popping their cloggs!

[irisgirl]

Hi, not sure why. But if you pollinate with male flowers, the cucs will taste bitter. (Says alot about the male species, eh? !!). If you go for varieties with Fem in the name, like Femspot, the male flowers have been bred out so you don't get that trouble.

Did you start feeding when you saw the flowers or before? I start when the little cucs can be seen.

[sdgtiger]

[QUOTE=irisgirl;480284]Hi, not sure why. But if you pollinate with male flowers, the cucs will taste bitter. (Says alot about the male species, eh? !!).

Not heard this before. With most species the female flowers have to be pollinated with the males. You can let nature do this or use a paintbrush or finger and pollinate by hand. If pollination does not occur then the baby courgettes will not grow to any size and indeed may start to rot. Don't wory about the lack of female flowers they will appear as the season progresses. Males tend to appear first with the females arriving later. Once things progress trust me you will be heartily sick of courgettes

[starloc]

The male flowers form first to flood the area with pollen for the female flowers, so on some varietys you tke them off

Most cucumbers dont need to be pollinated as they have been developed as indoor varietys, they are not realy self fertile as that would be that they polinat themselves, they just dont need polinaing forming fruit without pollination, whereas outdoor varietys need polination

I have quite a few varietys that i cant find out if i am suposed to polinate or not, i at even find out if there outdoor or indoor varietys listed anywere ,so i have been polinating most of them unless i find out different, i know telegraph doesnt and marketmore does need polinating, thats all i can find out!

I have seen that if polinated the fruits produce seed, and when ripe they go bitter under the skin and at one end, most people harvest before fully ripe so i ant see it being a poblem, i wouldnt now though as ive never tried eating them from a shop or home grown with or without pollination

On a few plants i have been removing male flowers and spraying the center of the flowers with gibberelic acid as they do with seedless fruits it causes fruit set without pollination, giving no seeds