Cucumbers

Last year I grew Telegraph Improved in the greenhouse, which all grew well but tasted bitter and inedible, and Marketmore outside between the rows of runner beans, they grew not so well but tasted sweet and delicious.

The Marketmore seed packet says to be grown outside, but would you think I could grow them in the greenhouse and has anyone else tried this?

Many thanks

 

I grew Marketmore in our polytunnel last year and they performed very well.

 

I reckon the only problem you might get in a g.house Blackthorn is getting the insects to them but if you open the door/vents a lot or buy a nice little paint brush you shouldn't have problems.

 

Blackthorn, it sounds to me as if your cucumbers were pollinated, which is what you don`t want. Removing all male flowers as they as they appear will prevent pollination from taking place.

 

Got to agree with David's diagnosis. If you don't want to have to faff about removing male flowers you could try growing an f1 hybrid variety that only produces female flowers. I tried femspot for the first time last year and was very pleased with the results. It's also fairly disease resistant.

 

Dave, Femspot is a superb cucumber, but even that can produce male flowers from time to time.

 

I didn't know that David, I must have been lucky - grew twoFemspot plus three Topsy last year and didn't get any males. It's just as well because I had to leave the GH and tunnel in the care of our son for three weeks in June and he'd never have spotted the difference, at least not until he ate one! :D

 

It`s not a big problem, sometimes you may get 1 or 2 male flowers appearing.

 

Telegraph improved is a greenhouse cue that does NOT need to be pollenated.
If Market More is descried as an outdoor cue, then its likely that it does need pollenating, so I would guess that insects will need to be encouraged to get pollenation, unless you follow Johns advice and buy a small paint brush.

 

You've got a good point there Pete about Marketmore as the tunnel ours grew in had both doors open for most of the summer so there was no shortage of insects.

 

Hi all and thnks for all the comments.
I did try and remove all the male flowers from the telegraph but thery seemed to be produced in large numbers last year and I could't keep up. It seems male flowers are produced when conditions are not ideal ie. when it is a bit cool which is what happened last summer.

As I open the greenhouse a lot in summer there is no problem with insects, I seem to have been constantly helping trapped bees to escape - they always find their way in but can never seem to find the door or vents to escape again. :rolleyes:

 

About the marketmore, as Dave seems to have grown them successfully in the polytunnel, I think I will try them in the GH this year and see what happens - at least I won't have to keep up with male flower removing! :D

 

Blackthorn, telegraph is an old variety of greenhouse cue, that grows both male and female flowers, and as you know, you need to remove the male flowers to aviod pollenation.
Most F1 greenhouse cues these days are all female and rarely produce male flowers.
Its the outdoor ridge types and the Japanese ones that mostly need to be pollenated, whithout which you get no fruit.

 

I didn't know that telegraph produced both pete, thanks. Now I know why I couldn't keep up with it!