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Re: Gardening question for container gardeners

Lady Penguin-It really sounds like the cukes are not being pollinated correctly.
This is exactly what happened to you pumpkins-despite being told that it was blossom end rot-if the flowers fall off before the
fruit sets then pollination was not complete.  Blossom end rot is exactly what is sounds like-the blossom end of the fruit-usually
tomatoes-on a decent sized fruit suddenly turns black, looks sunken and mold appears.
Blossom drop on the other hand usually results from too high a temp in the day or too low a temp at night.  Here the blossoms don't
even get a chance to fully open-they just drop off.
Pollination in cukes, squashes and watermelon is sometimes a tricky business.  Lady Penguin, please-don't be insulted, I'm going to
assume that you have no knowledge in this area.  These types of plants have both male and female blossoms.  The female is recognized
by the swelling behind the base of the flower.  Sometimes (often actually) it takes a while for the plant to get in sync-that is,
there is a flush of all female or all male blossoms before the plant puts out both male and female flowers at the same time.  The
male lives for a day but the female lives for about three days.  However, the female must be pollinated on the first day before noon
(I'm not kidding-the pollen has a very short life) for pollination to the most successful.  You can help them along by performing
this by hand.  Watch you plants carefully for a few days and you will see the male and female floweres swell and color.  Check in
the morning about 10 am and when you see a male flower and female flower open, pick the male flower, strip off the petals and use
this like a brush to dust all over the female(s).  Pollinate each female with as many males as possible.  If there is more than one
female you just have to be a little more frugal with the male and use it to pollinate all the females.  Usually bees do this job
nicely but if there aren't enough the job doesn't get done well.  Also there are a lot of problems with bees these days with the
varola and tracheal mites affecting the hives.  This procedure works-I have done this many times.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to e-mail me.
Caron

Lady Penguin wrote:

> I know this isn't an indoor gardening question necessarily, but thought I'd throw it in here anyhow, because I have a real
> problem.  It's with my cucumbers.  I have three very vigorous cucumber plants in a large, deep pot on my patio outside.  They
> get plenty of sun and water and for most reasons, appear to be doing fine.  However, each time a cucumber gets a little more
> than an inch long or so, they start turning yellow and shriveling, eventually falling off the plant.  I had a problem similar to
> this with pumpkins once, the pumpkin problem of the flowers falling off before they set fruit, which is known as blossom end
> rot, but the cucumbers are producing fruit...the cucumbers just aren't staying alive long enough to mature.  The plants
> themselves seem healthy, a little bit of yellowing going on from the excessive sun and no rain, I think...I even checked for
> something called bacterial wilt, which is something cucumbers get, but it doesn't appear as if that's the problem either.  Any
> ideas, anyone?
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