In article ,
Kitanda wrote:

I'm a novice veg grower - this is only my 2nd year and I have a question
about cucubits.

Last year I bought all female cucumbers so the question didn't come up.
But this year I have male/female cucumbers, and also male/female
courgettes growing. I'm sure I read somewhere that I should cut off the
male cucumber flowers as female pollinated fruit becomes bitter. Should
I do the same for the courgettes?

I also read this morning that I should hand pollinate female courgette
flowers with the male. But I was wondering if it's possible that an
insect landing on the male courgette flower could then pollinate a
female cucumber flower?

Is this a daft question or a valid point? Any help would be appreciated
as I'm a little confused.

Tracey

It's a daft question.

Cucurbits inn the garden produce both male and female flowers on the
same plant, and they all rely on a pollinator, most often the honey bee.
If there are no bees, and you see small immature fruit browning, you may
want to take the petals off of one of the male flowers (the ones with
the long stems), and pollinate the female flowers (short stem), and
pollinate it in the traditional manner (it will be obvious).
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html