Cucumber marketmore

[ginger ninger]

I always remove the male flowers, i've never had any problems with bitter cuc's when i do this, a few years ago i left some on because i was told i had to..i ended up with nasty tasting cuc's.

[WeeGarden]

I didn't realise you had to remove the male flowers?

I thought it was only for greenhouse grown ones... I wonder if that's why my cucs aren't as juicy as can be?

[cazsudz]

I'm confused now as I thought the cuces wouldn't grow if you removed the male floweres ( Like courgettes). Can someone clear this up before I go out and take all the male flowers off my marketmores?

many thanks

Caz

[Incy]

Marketmore are an outdoor variety where you do NOT remove the male flowers. I am growing them in the greenhouse and they are doing well. Pick them between 6 and 8 inches long. They should be crunchy rather than watery like the supermarket ones and the skins can be a bit tough so peeling them is an option.
It's my first year growing these too but it statesvery clearly on my packet that you leave ALL the flowers on!
There are other varieties which need the male flowers removing but not this one.

[muslimgrower]

^ so if you do remove the male flowers, what happens to the fruit !?

[cazsudz]

Thanks incy - I'll leave all the flowers on and leave the cuces on the plant till they are a bit bigger.

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

Caz

[Shadylane]

^ so if you do remove the male flowers, what happens to the fruit !?

With an open pollinated variety then I would think the fruit would not develop as it wouldn't get pollinated. It all depends on what variety you grow. Check the seed packet and it will tell you. Our lottie neighbours were telling us to take the male flowers off our courgettes so that they'd put energy into making fruit - I expect they assumed (wrongly) that we, like them were using a self pollinated one.

[chriscross1966]

Ahhh... the annual cucumber flower confusion

There are three basic types of Cucumbers:
Old standards like Telegraph and Long White, ridge cucmbers (aka "outdoor") like Marketmore, and modern all-female F1 types like Cucino, Femina etc.

Old standards: generally rampant growth habits and low mildew tolerance make these a bad bet unless you have a Victorian sized greenhouse and Mellors knows what he's doing. Remove all male flowers as soon as they are seen, and TBF when I grew Telegraph I used to put a bagg over the females from before they flowered until the fruit had got going and the flower fallen off.

Modern F1 all female varieties shouldn't producee male flowers unless stressed so keep an eye out if you forget a days watering or the irrigation breaks down etc. If you find a male flower take it off ASAP Lots of variety from mini-cukes to standards.

Ridge cucumbers, and this includes all gherkins should have all flowers left on. Harvest fruit at about 8" for the cukes, expect a slightly tougher skin than other types and it will have spikes... I just knock the spikes off but other might want to do a more formal peeling. Do not grow these types anywhere near the other two, you will ruin their crop as they will crossfertilize.

chrisc

[Minty]

Ahhh... the annual cucumber flower confusion

There are three basic types of Cucumbers:
Old standards like Telegraph and Long White, ridge cucmbers (aka "outdoor") like Marketmore, and modern all-female F1 types like Cucino, Femina etc.

Old standards: generally rampant growth habits and low mildew tolerance make these a bad bet unless you have a Victorian sized greenhouse and Mellors knows what he's doing. Remove all male flowers as soon as they are seen, and TBF when I grew Telegraph I used to put a bagg over the females from before they flowered until the fruit had got going and the flower fallen off.

Modern F1 all female varieties shouldn't producee male flowers unless stressed so keep an eye out if you forget a days watering or the irrigation breaks down etc. If you find a male flower take it off ASAP Lots of variety from mini-cukes to standards.

Ridge cucumbers, and this includes all gherkins should have all flowers left on. Harvest fruit at about 8" for the cukes, expect a slightly tougher skin than other types and it will have spikes... I just knock the spikes off but other might want to do a more formal peeling. Do not grow these types anywhere near the other two, you will ruin their crop as they will crossfertilize.

chrisc

Sorry to rebump an old thread but could two different types of ridge(male and female flowers to be left on variety) be grown together or would this also cause problems(i have marketmore and marketer which i want to grow side by side), Thanks Minty

[ukfapower]

Mixing ridge cucumber varieties - not great

One year I grew both Marketmore and Long Green Ridge in my greenhouse - both ridge cucumbers. A number of fruits were bitter

A bit of research suggested it might be a result of cross pollenation.

So I've been careful ever since to just grow one variety each year and they've all been sweet