Hi I have Burpless cucumbers growing in half whiskey barrels. They are starting to bloom, but there's about four or five blooms real close together. Should they be "thinned" out or left alone? They are close to the bottom of the plant. The vines are about three feet tall and still growing.
Thanks Jimmy
Check to see if they are male or female blooms. Excess male blooms are candidates for stuffed squash blossoms!
Deeeelicious. ;-d
You can't have too many. They will fall off on their own. Unless, like Om you like to eat that sort of thing.
Kimberly
Leave it be. All is well. Stand by for cucumbers!
The female blossoms bear the fruit (they look like tiny cucumbers). The male blossoms are just flowers with no fruit to show. Of course, you could call the fruit bearer the male if so desired.
Stuffed squash blossoms! Pull the flower, remove the center stamens, stuff with a spiced rice and meat mixture, tie the petals shut at the tips.
Steam,fry or bake.
Very good!
Lots of recipes on google:
Female flowers are attached to the end of a miniature cucumber. Some varieties produce a bunch of male flowers before they even open the first female flower. I think you will find that the female flowers come one at a time.
Don't worry about that. It's technically impossible to make stuffed squash blossoms from cucumber flowers and NOBODY makes stuffed cucumber flowers!
Steve
Cucumbers can be infuriatingly slow to start setting. I think part of the blame can be attributed to the small size of each blossom: the bees just don't pay them much attention when there are bigger blooms nearby offering much bigger pollen rewards. Only when there are vast numbers of flowers on the cucumber do bees become interested. So I recommend that the impatient gardener pick a couple of male flowers and gently rub them around inside each open female flower to carry out the essential pollination. Do this early in the morning and keep it up each day until you find yourself competing with the bees! That way you won't waste the first lot of female flowers.
-- John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)
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