As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I have been upset as my Kuri squash arrived a female blossom, but all the male blossoms had given up the pollen days previous...........
I know a great deal about pumpkin and squash sex, as I have been involved in their procreation for years, but when it comes to cucumbers, I really had no comprehension in how to deal with any of this.
For those unaware, vines have male and female flowers. The females have little melons on them, and the males just profusely appear in record numbers, weeks before the female event to lure in bees and then constantly afterwards.
In squash and pumpkins, the pollen is often so full that there is absolutely no worry about it if one arises early enough in the morning. I frequently use the leaf stem of a pig weed or a lambsquarter to dispatch the pollen to the female flower.
The problem with cucumbers though is one can not see pollen if one has access to the pollen, and in that a new system was to be worked out for these Armenian cucumbers or melons as they are called.
This was my first attempt at this genus, and I was surprised how the first melons were on a runner off by themselves. It certainly made locating them easy.
What follows is the million dollar knowledge again, as I soon learned that the best way to deal with this was to carefully pinch off the male flowers from the vine, and then expose the male flower part by removing the petals and lower covering.
This along with the stem attached provided the best sexual intercourse with the female flowers.
In this, the older the male blossoms were, the more prone they are to snapping off at the flower, not leaving the stem for handling the fertilization part most easily, so that is part of the nuance of this which is most important.
I believe it is best to pollinate with a few male blossoms, and it does not hurt to reuse them on other female flowers. This worked very well in I successfully have two cukes now set on with two more hopefully pollinated today.
Out of necessity, I had to use a planter this year, which God provided in the trash. I am watering about 1 gallon a day, in half a gallon in the morning and half at night. I have been fertilizing once a month with an organic fertilizer which smells like animal lure from trapping, and the little flies like it immensely too. The point being in one can grow things in earth boxes or planters, but it requires a reservoir watering from below and above, along with fertilizing so the plants are growing like hydroponics wards.
I had no idea if this would work as the container is like 2 gallons and I have one squash and one cucumber in it. They seem to be behaving and the only problem I have had is the missing male flowers on the Kuri.
The roots are poking out the bottom of the planter and growing in the reservior soup and there is not the least problem with any of this. I fill the gallon milk jugs, and allow the chlorine to evaporate and do my deluge twice a day.
This has worked out exceedingly well and I am thankful and pleased. The tomatoes in planters need a bit of a catch up as I look for little blossoms on their barely 6 inch plants. It is all in the learning and I am hoping for a burst of growth from them soon.
Without bees this is the only sure method of pollinating vines, in the melon class of cucumbers, watermelon and cantelope types. I am thinking of maybe trying to leave the first one for seed, as if this works out, I do see two other cukes appearing on the vines.
I think TL and I ate five meals off of one last year, so is not like we are going to be short on these which is extremely nice in having this type of production.
It reminds me one year when I had 4 Collective Farm Women melons started early and I think we were blessed with like 16 melons, and some were very large...left them on the lawn for a month and they kept as good as the grocery.
I am going to re examine planting and paying attention to things as husbanding these crops definitely has an advantage.
nuff said.
agtG
