[Arid_gardener] Cucumbers everything you wanted to know about cucumber love...

[Genie]

Dear Zena,

Not to worry Kiddo.  This is normal... so TRY to be patient!   Use 
"Blossom Set" spray -- to encourage more flowers
(Blossom Set contains the hormone kinetin), and watch them daily -- for 
signs of females.  If you do NOT see plentiful
bee activity, you may have to help their "love life" along, by 
transferring pollen from the male to the female flower.

Without a long, boring essay regarding plant sex... suffice to say that 
cucumber sex is essentially classified as such:

1) Gynoecious - all plant flowers are female, and will need a male 
pollinator to produce fruit.

2) Monoecious - plants that produce mostly male flowers (especially when 
young), then begin to
produce some females later on.  These need to be watched every day.
 
3) Parthenocarpic And Hermaphroditic - plants that produce "perfect" 
flowers.  That is, both the male and
female parts are within the same flower.  These will produce fruits with 
no help from the bees or you,
although purchasing these seeds are a bit pricey.

Squash -- which is in the same family as cucumbers -- share similar 
sexual habits... and as a beginning
gardener (decades ago)... I wondered if my squash was the only "gay" 
plant on this planet!   It seemed like
forever, but eventually the female flowers finally appeared, Zena.  :-) 
Be patient. Watch them daily if possible.

Good Luck and Kindest Regards,
Genie

>Message: 1
>Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:19:57 -0700 (MST)
>From: zenonasser at hotmail.com
>Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page
>To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
>Message-ID: <200606232219.k5NMJvXO018262 at Ag.arizona.edu>
>
>zena
>32094
>zenonasser at hotmail.com
>
>hi,
>I planted some cucumbers about 2 months ago and noticed lots of bright yellow blooms that dries and falls off eventually.  I notice that there isn't any cucumbers growing.  i researched and came up with many useful information about male and female blooms.  what i did not find any information about is that all my blooms happen to be male.  i just wanted to know if there is any article out there about just male blooms.  
>thanks zena
>
>  
>
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