Cucumbers? n other dumb questions coming

Hi all, I got a bit of a gardening bug this year, it started with a few old seeds in the kitchen drawer and grew (out of control now) i'm gonna have a ton of silly questions coming but at the top of my list is my cucumbers, bought from a value pack of seed from BnQ, the packet says "Market More" I've googled them and found out the are a ridge cucumber, I started with four plants but have since seeded another 8, I dug two 1 foot square holes n planted two plants outside, with weed sheeting around n a cloche from pound shop, I was'nt sure if it was to early for them to go out so kept the other two on the living room window sill, the two outside are not as happy as the ones on the window sill, so I'm thinking that I should maybe keep these two indoors, its a 10" square pot.................



They both have a ton of little cucumbers forming on them, but my concern is pollination, these outdoor types rely on insects and if the pots are big enough as I dont know big these chappys get? I'm a single dad doing a womens traditional job, so if I need to get power tools out in the living room to drill support cables or such its game on:yess:

so, may questions are...
1) are the pots large enough?
2) will I have to try and pollinate them by hand?

I did think I could run around the garden with my sons minnow net and catch a ton of bees to let loose indoors?

Kind Regards, Phil.

 

Hello Phil, the outdoor ones will be smaller as it is still cold, they will produce cucumbers about 4" long but very nice . The indoor will require some thing to climb up, the 10" pots will be large enough but they will need feeding. I grow ridge cucumbers in the greenhouse & they reach 10" long. Leave the window open to polinate.
Regards eric.

 

Thanks Eric, I got a reel of 30 pound wire fishin trace somewhere (old pike fishing days lol), so I'm thinking about getting the drill out and putting in a couple of strong lines, rawl plugs n little eye hooks should do nicely

But! back to polination, the second plant on the left side of the sill came into flower today, and the base of the flower is not the same as the first, its trate stalked with no sign of a fruit, so its deffo a male..........(hope I resized the foto to forum rules ok?)



the thing is I read alot on google about the plant so I'm deffo sure I've got the flowers correctly, the plant on the right produced a female flower first, the pettles have folded and began to die now, but could I open them and pollinate it by hand from the other male flower? I cant see it doing any harm and worth a try, I will open the windows in hope the insects will come in and do their job, but I also dont mind giving them a hand if I have to lol

Thanks for the reply, I see another cucumber thread in "General" not the same questions but some interesting reading about pests and stuff, maybe a mod needs to tie the threads together, makes it easer to find stuff.

Kind Regards, Phil.

 

You can just break off a male flower and push it into / onto the female flower, to pollinate.

The Female flowers have a baby cucumber behind the flower, that makes the stalk of the flower. The Males just have a skinny stalk behind the flower.

Or you can get a little artists watercolour-type paintbrush and use that to transfer pollen from Male to Female flowers. Even if the insects can get to the plants, early in the year they might not be a very good job, so giving them some help is good.

 

Hi Kristen, I've got the id of male and female flowers done, they stand out like a sore thumb once you see them alongside each other, I went the artist brush route, I did pick off one of the male flowers as it was easer than trying to lean over the plant with the brush, I've got 5 little fruits now with about as many male flowers, so the brush is close at hand.

does anyone know how long it is (after polination) before the fruits starts to fatten? thats the point at which I'll know if my brush strokes have worked:yess:

Thanks for the help, Regards, Phil.

Thanks Eric, I've got a general flower/veg food and some tomatoe food, what do you use on yours? I dug out a reel of old stainless wire trace, about 300 pound test so that sounds strong enough.

Thanks for the replys, Regards, Phil.

 

They should fatten within a few days. But they will fatten, initially, even if not fertilized - but then they just drop off (well, I expect that's the case as that is how the others in the family [Melons, Squash, etc.] behave)

If they are fertilized they will carry on fattening up ...

... although greenhouse ones tend to only hold 4 fruit, or so, and are self-regulating in that any more that fertilize then wither and drop off ... so worth picking the fruit relatively small to encourage more to set and fatten-up

 

Thanks Kristen, The wire is up and I lifted both plants carefully inch by inch putting books under one at a time, then dropped some strings down from the cable, you can just see the cable top left corner, I ran it at about 30 degrees, you can see the female flowers far left and right, and a single male in the middle.............




And thats a kinda egg toy in the pot that my son put in:D off to try polinate the fruit on the left as it only opened this morning:yess:

Many thanks, Plant Potty

 

Thanks Kristen, both plants are growing like crazy up the strings I did post a reply with foto but its not been mod approved yet, here's a direct link to my photobucket http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx282/phil_067/SDC10945.jpg hope that works ok I keep losing count on the female flowers that are developing, I've polinated 7 on the two plants so far, they are fantastic things to watch grow

What is the name of the climbing part of the plant? the stringy bits that pull it along lol

Kind Regards, Plant Potty

 

Runners (the shoot that grows) and Tendrils (the bits on the side of the shoot that cling)

 

Tendrills, thats the kiddy, Thanks its amazing to see those tendrills do their work, I put the plant up on strings two days ago and put any tendrills that would reach in contact with the string, they have wrapped around and the plant pulled itself up, I did read something about nipping out the tip of the plant when it got to nine sections on each runner, it said something about making the plant spread out more, not sure if that is good advice or not? and seeing as mine are on the window sill maybe I dont want it bushing towards the tv lol

On "Other dumb questions coming"? my pepper plant has opened two flowers with about 20 more buds coming, do you know how peppers polinate?, I was thinking about putting it out on the decking now the wind and rain have stopped.

Many thanks, Plant Potty.

 

Only one fruit has dropped off in two weeks (and that was the first flower and female so could'nt polinate), the plants have been going crazy with flowers, there's prob near 15 fruit on each plant, but very small still other than three that have started to pile on the weight.

Peeps coming down my front path stop n have a good look at this one....



Plant Potty.