Lots of blooms, no cucumbers?

[Pamela H in Texas]

Can anyone tell me why my two Cuke plants have tons of flowers and no cukes? Any way to rectify the situation?

 

Thanks in Advance!

[chickenpatty]

I hope someone has an answer, because I'm wondering about this as well. None of my plants in the cucurbita (melons, cukes, pumpkins) clan have formed fruit yet. I've heard that it could be from the lack of honeybees. ?

 

:confused:

[mysticamethyst]

I will get little cukes start then they turn black. They did this last year too, but the year before that I couldnt' gather them fast enough. Any ideas? Actually, my garden this year is not great at all, I am very disappointed as I wanted to be able to store some for the winter, I will have to try a fall garden and hope for better.

[JFSinIL]

I do believe it is the lack of bees to pollinate the blossoms. Our poor veggies - all dressed up (blooming) for a "dance" and no "date" (or, maybe I should say 'escort service" in reference to honeybees?) ;)

[Doran]

Unless it's just not been long enough for the plants to produce fruit, it does seem that a pollination issue is the problem. How long ago were your plants started? (I can't remember when you were making all those exciting posts about your new garden space.)

 

You can hand pollinate cucumbers, esp. if you only have a few plants. First you have to figure out which are the male and which the female flowers. The females are the ones with the little bitty fruits (in this case cukes) at the base of the flower. Now, you get to play! Here's a blog site that might help. It has great photos and an easy to read description so that you can help your cukes have a little fun in the sex department. ;)

[TravelingChris]

There can be two different issues. First of all, cucumbers have male plants and female plants. If you happen to have all female plants and no male plants nearby, you will not get fruit (the cucumber). If you have both types, you may not be having a pollinator but then you can do the pollination yourself. (By the way, I don't know about cucumbers but many plants are not pollinated by bees but rather by moths or butterflies).

[Remudamom]

No bees.

[brehon]

Our beans, cukes, zucchini, and squash have tons of flowers and little fruit setting. I know I've heard lots of buzzing around our garden and seen bees; but, I don't know if the female plants and male plants are too far from each other. I really haven't looked to see the distribution pattern of males/females, either. Hmmm...it's a mystery.

 

We've looked at getting a couple of hives anyway. Maybe this would help?? Sigh. Where in Texas are you? I'm in central Texas. It's been so hot here for so long (our first triple digit day was back in late April and we've had 35 or 40 100+ degree days since). Maybe that's part of the problem.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I'm in DFW....

 

Well, my mom had suggested using a q-tip to "help" my cukes. Guess I'll go ahead and try that. I do have a few bees, but maybe just not enough (and maybe they are just too interested in my Crepe Myrtles to play with my cukes.

 

Now, I can see female parts under certain blooms. Does that make the whole plant female? Or I just take "stuff" from the ones without that part and put it in the ones with that part. I guess the question is if PLANTS are male female or there are males and females on the same plant......

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

My cukes are doing poorly this year, last year I had a bumper crop. We've had plenty of bees, I'm attributing it to the extremely dry year we've had so far.

[Jenny in Atl]

We have had to do a bit of hand pollenating this year. Just yesterday I saw a good number of bees in the garden. Hopefully, more will come and visit soon.

[Bonnie in VA]

I've got a hive of bees, but I guess they haven't found the cucumbers. I've got lots of flowers / no cucumbers, too. I'll have to try hand-pollinating, I guess.

[Susan in KY]

If it *is* lack of pollination, you can get in there with a little paint brush and do it yourself.

 

:)

[Doran]

There can be two different issues. First of all, cucumbers have male plants and female plants. If you happen to have all female plants and no male plants nearby, you will not get fruit (the cucumber). If you have both types, you may not be having a pollinator but then you can do the pollination yourself. (By the way, I don't know about cucumbers but many plants are not pollinated by bees but rather by moths or butterflies).

 

 

Generally, cucumbers nowadays are monoecious meaning they produce both male and female flowers separately on the same plant. So, I would doubt it's a male/female plant issue. Aside from pollination, though, I did do a bit more reading and am reminded now that cucumbers and other similar plants go through phases of growth. I kind of touched on this in my earlier post, but more specifically -- during the first phase, the cucumber will have mostly male flowers. In the second phase, there will be a more even mix of male to female, and in the final stage, there will be mostly female flowers. So, again, maybe the OP's cukes haven't had quite enough time yet to start producing many female flowers. That seems likely to me.

[Cedarmom]

I plant flowers near my veggie garden to attract bees. It must work, because I never even heard of hand pollinating !

[chickenpatty]

Woohoo! Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a cucumber!

 

I checked out the plants a couple of days ago and didn't see any female flowers, so I gave up on the plants. But, alas, as of this morning, there is a 3 inch long little prickly cucumber out there.

 

Now, if only some more will grow. One is a lot to share among 8 people. :001_smile:

 

I'm waiting for my pumpkins to bloom (should be tomorrow!) and do plan to give them a little help. I am so eager to grow a pumpkin.