Cucumber help

As most of you may know this is my first year at growing any kind of edible 'stuff' at the moment I'm stuck with my cucumbers my Telegraph ones are okay, am I right in thinking that the Telegraph ones have already been all sorted to only produce female plants as there was only 8 seeds in the packet?

My other question is that my Marketmore cucumbers are still only quite small and yet have started to flower I keep pinching off the flowers as I thought that the plant needs to grow somewhat to hold the fruit so to speak ...am I doing right?

Also it states on the packet I need to pinch off the male flowers on this cucumber plant otherwise the fruit is bitter and that the female plants will have a tiny cucumber behind the flower head but for the life of me I can't tell which has a tiny cucumber behind the flower head and which hasn't. :confused:

As you can see I'm in need of help badly if anyone of you have a picture of the difference of the male and female flower heads that would be wonderful and would help me out of this awful mess. Hel.xxx.

 

Hel, imagine a cucumber a half inch long, that will be behind the female flower. The male flower will just have a stalk behind it.:thumb: You say your Marketmore cucs are quite small, how small? And, more importantly, are the flowers male or female?

 

Not trying to confuse the issue, but when I used to grow telegraph they had male and female flowers, marketmore seems to be an outdoor ridge variety, which will need male and female flowers to produce a crop.

So my guess is,.... remove male flowers from the telegraph and grow it in a greenhouse.

Leave male flowers on marketmore and grow outdoors.

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Thanks guys I have been able to find a image of a female flower head so now I know what to look for!:o

Pete both variety's claim to be outdoor plants although I was wanting to grow some in the greenhouse as well as outside to see the difference it makes to the crops.

David the Marketmore plants are about 5 inches long so as you can see they really are very tiny and I can't understand why they want to flower when the plant is so small?Hel.xxx.

 

If its the telegraph I know, then I wouldn't grow it outside.

 

I`m inclined to agree with you then Hel, keep taking the flowers off until the plant gets a little bigger. As Pete says, Telegraph is a greenhouse variety.:D:thumb:

 

Many thanks guys for your help I'll keep the Telegraph ones in the greenhouse those ones are doing really well and are really nice strong plants. Hel.xxx.

 

Hello All! I too am growing cucumbers from plants bought locally. I have fruit forming behind ALL the flowers (I think) .. does this mean there will be no male flowers .. and if so are the female flowers self-pollinating? I hope that makes sense?!?!

I'm also growing melons which are flowering but I'm confused as to what to do next. A friend tells me I should pinch out the top of the plants to limit the plant to produce just two fruits ... fine ... but when do I do this? Would it help if I put on a photo?

All are being grown in the greenhouse alongside the toms and green peppers.

Thanks all!

 

"does this mean there will be no male flowers"

Sounds like it, but keep an eye out for them - I've had a couple on my plants which I've taken off.

"and if so are the female flowers self-pollinating?"

I think the idea is that you don't want them to be pollinated because [my understanding is] that makes the fruit bitter

The little fruits will die off if the plant has too many cues on it - so it kinda self-regulates itself.

 

"I'm also growing melons which are flowering but I'm confused as to what to do next. A friend tells me I should pinch out the top of the plants to limit the plant to produce just two fruits ... fine ... but when do I do this?"

Here's what I do, but would welcome being told I'm doing it all rwrong, or there are better ways:

I let mine keep growing up - I position my melons next to the glass, and then train them up inside the roof (whereas I put the Toms next to the path so they have more head-room_

I "stop" (pinch out) the side shoots at 4 leaves, and any that come of those at 2 leaves

I think you are not supposed to allow the fruit to develop on the main stem, only the side shoots (no idea why!)

I allow 4 fruits per plant, but the important thing is to not have too many for the plant to ripen before the season finishes.

I pollinate the female flowers by taking a male flower that is fully open, tearing off the petals etc. to expose the pollen, and stuffing that into the female flower.

I support the melons that form with some old tights, or somesuch, as the stems won't take the weight - unless the plant is lying on the ground.

Press the bottom of the melon to see when it is ripe.

They don't happen very quickly - unlike Toms and Cues.

 

Thanks for the info Kirsten! Will make way down to greenhouse later on and see what's going on .... I seem to have more than four leaves on my melons, more like twenty!! I've a feeling things aren't going to be successful thus far ....

Will keep you informed!!

 

4 leaves is for the first side shoots off the main stem. I hope you haven't shortened the whole plant to only 4 leaves :eek:

 

Ooops ..... Now that would be funny!!! In all honesty Kristen I went down there yesterday and just stared at them all more or less scratching my head and tried to decide which were the male/female flowers. It didn't help much because I didn't have my specs on. So am still no wiser. They are not climbing up the support we've put in but are trailing across the floor. I'm in two minds whether to just leave well alone and let nature take its course, or ... take the whole project seriously and find the male flowers. At the moment we are sooo busy you cannot imagine .. the greenhouse is secondary. We've entered the competition for best garden again this year (coming third last year) ... and we're playing catch-up as poor hubby has been laid up for three weeks, and it's hard toil here. But, yesterday I discovered we've got cucumbers ... two were on the soil/floor and mouldy ... but the third is about 8ins long and is now on the kitchen table (our first ever) .... I can send a photo (dead chuffed)!!! Anyway, back to melons ... yes I MUST make the effort ... maybe tomorrow ;-) .... Thanks Kristen! A bientot!

 

You only have to do the fertilisation thingie until you some fruits form ... after that just water & feed them. You can't miss the female flowers, they have pretty large "baby fruits" behind the flowers - much bigger than the equivalent on Cucumbers. It might be that your plants are not big enough yet to be carrying female flowers, mine have only had female flowers for 2 or 3 weeks, and my plants are about 5 feet high.

 

I think you're right Kristen. The plants although flowering are nowhere near 5ft high yet and I haven't spotted any round fruits behind them. So, I'll just have to bide my time ..... A bientot!