16 Dec 19 Barabara (Australia - temperate climate)
Why do my cucumbers die and drop off when they are about 1 cm long please? They are neither under nor over watered. I dug cow manure into the bed 6 weeks before planting and have not fertilised further. The plants are very healthy and have many flowers and baby cucumbers on them.
17 Dec 19 anon (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
You need bees to pollinate the female flowers, looks like you don't have any in your area. You can do it by hand, google it. Try planting some bee attracting flowers/shrubs in your yard to bring the bees to your place next time. From my experience only a small % of female flowers end up pollinated and grow into full size fruit.
Thank you. I do have plenty of bees. It is my understanding that if the cucumbers have formed then the pollination has occurred. Am I wrong? I do have plenty of 1 cm cucumbers on the bushes.
If you look at the flowers, the male has no little cue behind the actual flower, whereas the female has the little cue then the flower in the front. I had 8 apple cues in recently and they produced hundreds of flowers if not thousands. Only picked about 100 cues from it all together. If you can check the cues about 7-10 am to see if the bees are working. I read it takes about 10-12 visits by bees to pollinate a pumpkin flower. Cues could be similar. Hope you have some cues growing by now.
This planting guide is a general reference intended for home gardeners. We recommend that you take into account your local conditions in making planting decisions. Gardenate is not a farming or commercial advisory service. For specific advice, please contact your local plant suppliers, gardening groups, or agricultural department.
The information on this site is presented in good faith, but we take no responsibility as to the accuracy of the information provided.
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This planting guide is a general reference intended for home gardeners. We recommend that you take into account your local conditions in making planting decisions. Gardenate is not a farming or commercial advisory service. For specific advice, please contact your local plant suppliers, gardening groups, or agricultural department. The information on this site is presented in good faith, but we take no responsibility as to the accuracy of the information provided.
We cannot help if you are overrun by giant slugs.