Chicken bald back

[sjp]

OK, I have a Q problem.

 

The plant is wonderfully vigerous, & clambering over everything in the greenhouse,but the little Q's grow to about an inch,the go soft & drop off

 

Never had a problem like this before - I have always been really good with Q's - any ideas???

 

sounds like there either not been pollenated with this wet weather we having there doesn't seem to be many bees about or theres one lower down thats all ready growing I get this happen with some of the heritage ones when I leave one or two on to long

[chickencam]

I have a few different varieties, mini ones, burpless and femspot. The burpless grow spiney but then are smoother when fully grown. and the femspot which i think is an F1 is much more like a supermarker cucumber.

[bluekarin]

well, nearly all my cucumbers have shriveled up Found out it was because the flowers were pollinated. I don't understand why this is as we have lots of bees in our garden. YD went out with a paintbrush to act as a bee I do have two larger fruits, so fingers crossed they don't shrivel up

[Tara.F]

pollination can take a while to get sorted, the flowers only last a day.

some days all the male flowers open, another all the female

It can take a while before there are enough of each open at the same time

 

The spines on some types are perfectly normal and help prevent slug damage...they easily rub off after picking.

 

For future reference, the reason lots of your plants failed was probably bruising

When you transplant seedlings, if the stem kinks or if they get squeezed when you firm the soil, the plant will often simply collapse at that point.

 

Some greenhouse varieties require the laborious picking off of male flowers.....'outdoor' varieties don't need any such fuss (and can be grown successfully IN a greenhouse too) the name simply refers to the pollination method.

 

Cukes are one of those crops that really do taste far better home grown! Burpless and marketmore are two very reliable varieties. Sow loads, you can always give spares away and you'll be more likely to have enough survive transplanting

 

there endeth the sermon

(sorry, but I lurve cucumbers )

[Alis girls]

picked one today it was smile shaped and would've been 8 inches longish if straight. de-lish in salad

[Blackrocksrock]

I have Marketmore ones and have picked one = quite small but tasty and one larger (wide) one still on plant and loads of little ones too. Been lucky this year.

[sjp]

with marketmore don't leave the big ones on to long i did that with one i'd mist last year the plant dropped all the little fruits it took a month to flower again

[Blackrocksrock]

Thank you for that I will pick it to-day as there are loads of little ones - some of which have dropped!