On 11 Oct, 11:20, wrote:
Roy Bailey wrote:
Any idea how to encourage female flowers earlier for next year?

The trick is to pinch out the growing shoot when the plants have
produced about 4 or 5 leaves. This encourages side shoots which tend to
produce the female flowers (the plant thinks it is under threat of
destruction and starts reproducing.)

Some of the books suggest then allowing four of these side shoots to
grow on, but in this country, even in a greenhouse, I would suggest one
or two.

A-ha! *Cheers. *I would never have figured that one out. *I've always
encouraged the main stem to grow in a similar way to how the tomatoes grow!
Dammit.

Better luck next year, eh? *:-)

Yes, thanks Roy also from me. I always thought that the production of
female flowers must be governed by temperature, but maybe it is just
that higher temperatures stimulate more side shoots anyway.

I find that pollination by small paintbrush is my most successful
method.