cucumbers - male and female!?

Hi reading through some of the previouse q's from last year about growing cucumbers it has been mentioned that u need to remove male plants, sorry if i sound silly but how do u tell the difference bettwen male and female??
- scuse my poor spelling(-:
thanks
karen

 

if you buy F1 all plants and flowers will be female, i cant remeber exactly but i rem i could tell easily, male cucumbers if they grow are bulbous, and bitter

 

thanks - what is F1 ?? and is is that the male plants norm do not prduce cucumber?? How long does it norm take for the fruit to begin to but out of the plant?

Ive only just sowed mine and waiting for the plant to show and never grown before so any tips would be great!!!!!!!!!.

(-:

 

Its not male plants, its male flowers that need to be removed, and then only on greenhouse varieys, ridge types grown outdoors need to be polenated.
F1 types only produce female flowers so there is no problem with removing the males.
Should add they do like warm humid conditions, so I always used to wait until may before planting, when its easier to get it right.
They grow pretty fast once they get going, and fruit comes along pretty quick as well.

 

Most, but not all, cucumber seed sold for greenhouse cucumbers is now F1 hybrid Karen. Have a look at the packet and if it says F1 you'll have no problems.

If yours are not greenhouse F1s you should remove the male flowers in order to prevent fertilisation of the females, as fertilised cucs taste bitter. You can recognise the male flowers as these will not have what looks like a mini cucumber behind them whereas the female flowers do.
Might sound complicated, but it really isn't once you see the flowers appearing.