Cucumber Pollination Problem

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I have tons, TONS of flowers on my cucumbers. I see the little cucumbers with the little flowers on them. I way over planted cucumbers this year (because I love them). I have no cucumbers that are getting bigger. I think they are falling off, un-pollinated.

I did try to hand pollinate some yesterday with a Q-tip. I could not visibly see pollen on the Q-Tip when I rubbed the male flowers. Any advice?

P.S. My squash are going crazy and I'm very happy with them this year. I have been hand pollinating them every morning. I have harvested them 3 times and had 2 squash meals so far.

 

[897tgigvib]

Some possible things occur to me at the top of my poor brain...

Are you overhead watering the Cucumbers? That might wash off the pollen.

Did maybe the Cucumbers get too much Nitrogen fertilizer? That tends to make the plants grow real well at the expense of fruit production.

Are your Cucumbers maybe one of those Greenhouse varieties? Some of those hybrid varieties are tricky to grow outside.

It still is early in the season. Just keep the plants growing nicely. No reason to force anything yet.

How far apart is each individual Cucumber plant? Do they seem overcrowded?

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Very overcrowded, growing like mad, green beautiful plants. There may be a nitrogen problem (because I worked in chicken manure over the winter), but the swiss chard and onions in the same bed are growing and growing. There is also a buttercup squash in there. I hand pollinated the one female and it's growing very nicely. There is a mix of varieties in the garden. Heirlooms, hybrids, pickling, long burpless, new seed, old seed, etc. I think I have more than 10 varieties, I wanted to be successful with at least some cucumbers. I am overhead watering. They are the first blooms and fruit, so I know I'm a bit premature worrying over them, but what I wondered is the pollen visible on the Q-tip like the squash is? Or is it more fine and white(ish)? I will try hand pollinating again, but was wondering if I was doing it right since I did not see pollen on the Q-tip.

 

[bills]

I have used a tiny paint brush for that exact purpose, and have to admit, even with the dark bristles, the cuke pollen is pretty hard to spot, (unlike pollen from some plant)s. It must be very small, and chances are with the Q tip would be even harder to see it.

Could it also be the flower hasn't matured enough, that the pollen is being released in quantity?

 

[catjac1975]

You can buy bee attractant and apply it

 

[Ridgerunner]

With those kinds of plants, the first flowers are normally 100% male. It takes a while for the female flowers to start. But you are seeing the ones with the cukes so you are getting female flowers. That's not your problem.

I thought with excess nitrogen the plants grew a whole lot of greenery and just didn't produce many flowers. @marshallsmyth , others, am I wrong about that? If they are flowering, I don't think too much nitrogen is the culprit where none make cukes.

Cukes grow really fast. If you hand-pollinated one yesterday you should be able to see the results today. Has the one you pollinated dried up or fallen of? Does it still look viable?

I don't have any brilliant ideas. I'd say keep trying to hand-pollinate a few and watch them. And be a bit patient. Sometimes certain plants like this can be a little slow to start but once they do, they blow you away.

Good luck!

 

[897tgigvib]

There might be a bit too much Nitrogen, but the right amount of Phosphorus that allows flowering.

If overcrowded, you may want to figure out the mechanics of the overcrowding, and then carefully use pruning shears to remove a few of the excess plants.

Also, you might want to try not overhead watering for awhile. Lower the water pressure at the spigot to about one quarter pressure, and apply water at the plant bases.

Your Swiss Chard grows great with excess Nitrogen. They like that.

Onions like the Phosphorous, and excess Nitrogen will make their tops look great. Not sure what that would do to their bulbing up.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I'll check my onions this evening and my cuccumber's that I hand pollinated. I will definitely be trying to hand pollinate more. There are a million little cucumber babies out there. I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but not by much. I'll take a picture and post when I do.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

 

[so lucky]

Too much rain, too warm at night, too cold at night; I think there are several different things that could affect pollination. Don't panic yet.