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Re: Female cucumbers

In a message dated 98-03-19 00:13:23 EST, allan@crwys.demon.co.uk (Allan Day)
wrote:

<< 1. The original type which bears male and female flowers. Fruit is
  formed on the female flowers. However if these have been pollinated
  by the male flowers the seeds form and spoil the fruit from a
  culinary point of view, so the male flowers have to be removed
  2. The modern F1 hybrid cucumber is bred fom two different parents
  and is sterile in that it bears only female fruits, thus the labour
  of removing the male flowers is avoided. >>

1.   Let's clarify our terminology:  a male flower does not pollinate a female
flower; bees pollinate. A male flower "pollenizes" the female.  The term
pollinator refers to the agent that carries the pollen, but the term is
sometimes misused.

2.  You seem to be referring to parthenocarpic cukes, which are greenhouse
varieties.  I have never seen these grown outside. It seems an inordinate
amount of work to try.

    These varieties are bred to make a fruit without setting seeds, and they
will be bitter if they do.

   With normal cucumber varieties, the flesh develops in response to
pollination of the seeds. Chemical changes occur, which stimulate the
development of the flesh in the area of the seed.  If the seeds do not set in
one portion of the flower, the fruit is deformed. It can fail because one side
has no set seeds, and the cuke will curl. Or one end can fail to set seeds,
and the cuke will have a tiny tail.  Or a wasp waist, etc.

    You can think of the pistil as similar to fiber optics. The spot on the
stigma where the pollen grain is deposited, determines exactly, the seed that
will be fertilized by the pollen tube growing down the pistil to the ovule
(incipient seed). This is why multiple bee visits are needed, to assure that
sufficient grains of pollen are smeared all across the entire area of the
stigma.

    Parthenocarpy is a defect in nature, but it occurs occasionally, and is
cultivated by humans because it suits our purposes.  Somehow the chemical
signals for fruit development are induced without seed setting.

    If you grow an "all female" parthenocarpic variety outdoors, you could not
have any other cucumbers (with male flowers) within the range of bees, OR,
you'd have to exclude ALL bees (and incidental pollinators) somehow.  With
honeybees you'd be talking a range of three to four miles (double the radius
from the hive, because pollen transfer can take place by jostling within the
hive).  With bumblebees  the range would be much smaller, and and with
solitary bees, the range would be very small, probably only a couple hundred
feet.

Pollinator@aol.com     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm
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