Cucumbers not forming

Pete.8

My 1st time growing cue's and I have a Cucino F1 in a 22L pot in my g/house.
It's growing very well and over the last week I've picked about a dozen 4-5" cue's - very tasty too!

I notice that some of the cues develop quickly into good size fruits and others remain tiny and shriveled as in the pic.
Cucino is all-female so doesn't require a male to pollinate, but does it need and insect or breeze to cause pollination?

Thanks

BobTheGardener

I think they do Pete but gently flicking the flowers should produce the same result.  The other possibility is the the plants know (via hormones) when they have too many fruit so cut off supplies to less developed ones.  As long as you keep picking regularly they will keep flowering so don't worry about those which don't develop.

Pete.8

Thanks Bob - I'll spend an hour flower flicking then and see what happens.
If they all ripened I wouldn't know what to do with them all anyway. 12 cucumbers in a week is more than enough for one!

AngieR

Pete, those look great.  Mine's are too small to harvest yet.  Good luck with the pollinating, I used a small make-up brush for the tomatoes.  I wasn't sure if they needed to be pollinated or not and thought better to be safe than sorry.

Pete.8

Thanks Angie - my first time like you.
I kept looking and all there was were tiny cue's. Then over the course of a couple of days there were cues 3-4" long, they seem to appear overnight.
Neighbours grow them, but say mine (Cucino) are the tastiest they've ever had.
I'm not a big fan of cue's and grew them just for the hell of it, but they are really tasty, don't give me the burps and have a paper thin skin which needs no peeling, so now I'm a convert.

Hope you get answers to your question.
The prickly nature of the leaves and stems I think would be enough to deter slugs n snails, only if they can get onto a fruit that's touching the ground they could then munch on that one I suppose. I'll keep an eye on your thread so I can learn more.

Good luck!

AngieR

I got my cuc seedlings from a neighbour Pete, my plants are much farther on than theirs, so I presume I am doing something right.  Found out earlier they are mini cucs so I suppose the first ones will be ready to harvest pretty soon.  We all like cucumbers so it should be no problem using them all up, it's the tomatoes I'm going to end up with a glut!  My work colleagues will probably be sick fed up of the sight of tomatoes by the time the autumn comes.  I'm glad all your neighbours are enjoying the fruits of your labour.

No answere to my query yet, hopefully one will come soon.