Cucumber flowers

[Louise54s]

Hello,

I’ve grown cucumbers in the greenhouse a few times, but was given ‘tasty king f1’ so I’ve planted some outside. They’ve been outside now for around 2 weeks. They’ve grown a huge number of flowers on them already- should I be pinching these off?

It says the are all female types- should I remove male flowers too?

thank you in advance

[burnie]

All female plants will produce male flowers if under any stress, you need to remove the males otherwise the cucumbers will be very bitter.

[Louise54s]

Thanks Burnie. So all these small flowers need to be removed? I can only see that looks female.

[burnie]

This vid shows you how to identify male or female flowers, ignore the comment about insects pollinating as you do not want the female flowers pollinating, yours are F1, so any flowers with a tiny cucumber behind the flower are female, and need keeping, remove the others. Now what is of concern is why your plant has so many male flowers, this usually happens if the plant is stressed, so maybe where you have the plant is perhaps not warm enough, if you are in northern UK, it might still be too cold at night for a few weeks yet.

[Louise54s]

I’m in the south of the UK and there’s been plenty of sun. They are in sun all day really and I hardened them off. I did read maybe they need more nitrogen?

I’ll remove the flowers that look obviously male and see how they get on. Got a couple in the greenhouse too (planted a few weeks later) so will be interesting to see how they compare.

[ameno]

More nitrogen won't help. Potassium is what encourages fruit and flowers.
But stress will be the issue. If it's not due to cold nights, then lack of water is probably the answer. Where I am, it's been very hot this past week or so, and all of my newly planted squashes, courgettes, and melons have been wilting in the blazing sun, as they don't really have enough roots yet to take up enough water to supply those big, soft leaves in this heat. I've been watering them daily.

[Louise54s]

Thanks ameno. We haven’t had rain here in about 6 weeks I suppose, I can’t even remember the last time it rained. I have been watering regularly. I guess I will just keep trying to water them and see what happens. All an experiment really!

[Jungle Jane]

As they’ve only been outside for two weeks,they could’ve produced those male flowers being in a small pot,now they have more space,male flowers pinched off,they should produce female only now but keep a check for a little while. You’re probably watering fine,the plants look good.