do cucumber plants need topping as per tomato plants when they get to the
desired height or do you leave them to carry on growing.

also I seem to be producing a lot of male flowers but very few female
flowers with the cucumbers on them, is this normal or is there something I
can do to reduce the amount of male flowers other that the obvious of
pulling off the male flowers.

In article , paul
writes
do cucumber plants need topping as per tomato plants when they get to the
desired height or do you leave them to carry on growing.
You can do either. If you top them, the plants will send out more side-
shoots which you can leave or remove depending on space available.

also I seem to be producing a lot of male flowers but very few female
flowers with the cucumbers on them, is this normal or is there something I
can do to reduce the amount of male flowers other that the obvious of
pulling off the male flowers.

Keep on deflowering the males, and keep picking your cu's young and
early. If there are too many fruits trying to ripen on a plant at once,
the females will go on a go-slow in protest.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

In article , paul
writes
do cucumber plants need topping as per tomato plants when they get to the
desired height or do you leave them to carry on growing.
You can do either. If you top them, the plants will send out more side-
shoots which you can leave or remove depending on space available.

also I seem to be producing a lot of male flowers but very few female
flowers with the cucumbers on them, is this normal or is there something I
can do to reduce the amount of male flowers other that the obvious of
pulling off the male flowers.

Keep on deflowering the males, and keep picking your cu's young and
early. If there are too many fruits trying to ripen on a plant at once,
the females will go on a go-slow in protest.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

In article ,
says...
In article , paul
writes
do cucumber plants need topping as per tomato plants when they get to the
desired height or do you leave them to carry on growing.
You can do either. If you top them, the plants will send out more side-
shoots which you can leave or remove depending on space available.

also I seem to be producing a lot of male flowers but very few female
flowers with the cucumbers on them, is this normal or is there something I
can do to reduce the amount of male flowers other that the obvious of
pulling off the male flowers.

Keep on deflowering the males, and keep picking your cu's young and
early. If there are too many fruits trying to ripen on a plant at once,
the females will go on a go-slow in protest.

Indeed. I'm in my first ever year growing them, although there are some
faint dregs of memory from my grandad's garden. We've not let any fruit
get to full size yet, mainly due to needing another one since these half
sized ones taste so nice and don't last so long. It seems as though as
long as there are two maturing fruit on a plant, the rest just sit there
busily doing nothing.

As soon as the latest contender for the salad bowl gets to an edible
size and is plucked before its prime, another fruit starts to grow
almost immediately.

I'm not complaining about this behaviour since I can see these plants
cropping until it gets cold at this rate and if the outdoor ones ever
show any signs of wanting to crop I may be able to let the greenhouse
collection get over a foot long.

I'll be growing them again next year. By then I may have recalled some
of the arcana my grandad knew that had his plants keeping the entire
family in salad crops for half the year (although he had an allotment
too so maybe I'll only manage to keep my tiny family in salads).

Warwick

In article ,
says...
In article , paul
writes
do cucumber plants need topping as per tomato plants when they get to the
desired height or do you leave them to carry on growing.
You can do either. If you top them, the plants will send out more side-
shoots which you can leave or remove depending on space available.

also I seem to be producing a lot of male flowers but very few female
flowers with the cucumbers on them, is this normal or is there something I
can do to reduce the amount of male flowers other that the obvious of
pulling off the male flowers.

Keep on deflowering the males, and keep picking your cu's young and
early. If there are too many fruits trying to ripen on a plant at once,
the females will go on a go-slow in protest.

Indeed. I'm in my first ever year growing them, although there are some
faint dregs of memory from my grandad's garden. We've not let any fruit
get to full size yet, mainly due to needing another one since these half
sized ones taste so nice and don't last so long. It seems as though as
long as there are two maturing fruit on a plant, the rest just sit there
busily doing nothing.

As soon as the latest contender for the salad bowl gets to an edible
size and is plucked before its prime, another fruit starts to grow
almost immediately.

I'm not complaining about this behaviour since I can see these plants
cropping until it gets cold at this rate and if the outdoor ones ever
show any signs of wanting to crop I may be able to let the greenhouse
collection get over a foot long.

I'll be growing them again next year. By then I may have recalled some
of the arcana my grandad knew that had his plants keeping the entire
family in salad crops for half the year (although he had an allotment
too so maybe I'll only manage to keep my tiny family in salads).

Warwick

In article ,
says...
In article , paul
writes
do cucumber plants need topping as per tomato plants when they get to the
desired height or do you leave them to carry on growing.
You can do either. If you top them, the plants will send out more side-
shoots which you can leave or remove depending on space available.

also I seem to be producing a lot of male flowers but very few female
flowers with the cucumbers on them, is this normal or is there something I
can do to reduce the amount of male flowers other that the obvious of
pulling off the male flowers.

Keep on deflowering the males, and keep picking your cu's young and
early. If there are too many fruits trying to ripen on a plant at once,
the females will go on a go-slow in protest.

Indeed. I'm in my first ever year growing them, although there are some
faint dregs of memory from my grandad's garden. We've not let any fruit
get to full size yet, mainly due to needing another one since these half
sized ones taste so nice and don't last so long. It seems as though as
long as there are two maturing fruit on a plant, the rest just sit there
busily doing nothing.

As soon as the latest contender for the salad bowl gets to an edible
size and is plucked before its prime, another fruit starts to grow
almost immediately.

I'm not complaining about this behaviour since I can see these plants
cropping until it gets cold at this rate and if the outdoor ones ever
show any signs of wanting to crop I may be able to let the greenhouse
collection get over a foot long.

I'll be growing them again next year. By then I may have recalled some
of the arcana my grandad knew that had his plants keeping the entire
family in salad crops for half the year (although he had an allotment
too so maybe I'll only manage to keep my tiny family in salads).

Warwick