Cucumber

My cucumbers are coming on well and are 18 inches high,there are kind of tentacles growing from them which wrap around everything,am i supposed to cut these off?

 

Hi Eastex, the tentacles are what the cucumber uses to climb up. Usually, for indoor cucumbers that stay in the greenhouse you provide a framework of canes and string to support them. They take up far less room that way.
See link below
http://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/crops/cucumber.asp

 

Hi Blackthorn, do you pinch out the male flowers?.I grew cucumbers last yr and was told to pinch out the male flowers because they produce sour fruit.-you can tell the male fowers by the thin shoot,the female flowers have a fat shoot on account of they do nowt(just like a woman).

 

My FIL grows these, and he tells me the male plants produce the crops that make you burp!

He swears by it !!!!

 

Thanks Blackthorn,the flowers all look the same to me at the moment so will wait til they get a bit bigger.

 

You are welcome eastex. Apparently indoor cucumbers should not be pollinated as it makes the fruit very bitter. The female flowers open at the end of mini-cucumbrs, and the males stay close to the stem of short stalks. Once the plant is established the male flowers should reduce in number.
Strangely, you don't remove the male flowers from outdoor plants as the females need to be pollinated to produce the fruits. Don't ask me why this is so for outdoor, and not for indoor varieties, as I've no idea. :confused: