Poor cucumber seeds
The appearance of barren flowers on a vegetable crop is often associated with poor-quality seed material. When self-harvesting seeds, some gardeners take them from hybrids. This cannot be done.
Reference! Hybrid varieties are not able to maintain their qualities when re-sowing.
Seed material for cucumbers should be purchased in special stores, where sellers will help you choose the optimal vegetable varieties, taking into account the climatic zone, planting time, yield and purpose of the product.
Barren flowers can also be caused by seeds taken from male cucumbers. You can distinguish female cucumbers from male cucumbers by some signs. They have a tetrahedral shape and 3 seed chambers.
What is a wasteland
A flower that does not bear fruit and dies off soon after blooming is called a barren flower in botany. The cucumber is formed from the female flower, and the male is needed for pollination.
Natural pollination occurs only with the help of insects. Cucumbers are not pollinated by the wind. In some cases, artificial, manual pollination is necessary. There are self-pollinated parthenocarpic varieties.
The male flower is a barren flower because it cannot bear fruit. Inflorescences can be distinguished by external signs: female inflorescences have a slight thickening at the base, from which the fetus then begins to form, the main difference is the presence of a pistil; male ones are located on a thin stalk and always have stamens.
Barren flowers on cucumbers must not be picked. Pollination is required even when the formation of green is already beginning on the female flower.
Sowing too "young" seeds
The formation of ovaries directly depends on the age of the purchased seeds. Three- or four-year-old seed is ideal.
Fresh seeds can also be used for planting. But, to reduce the risk of barren flowers, they are heated for 2 months near a heat source. An alternative to this option is calcining the seed in the oven at a temperature of + 550C.
Attention! This method requires caution.
Processing helps to accelerate the formation of female flowers.
Tips from experienced summer residents
Experienced summer residents claim that the empty flower problem is more common when growing cucumbers in a greenhouserather than outdoors. Staying a plant in a greenhouse excludes its natural pollination by insects. In such a situation, you can resort to artificial insemination. The best time for it is from 9 to 12 noon. The technology is simple - a bud with pollen and apply it to a female flower. The pollen should come from the stamens of one inflorescence on the stigma of another.
You can use the folk method and attract bees to the greenhouse... For this, a bouquet of dandelions or perennial onions is placed in it. It is permissible to use a honey solution as a bait, with which the bushes are sprayed. The scent of honey will attract insects to the greenhouse.
In a greenhouse, experienced summer residents are advised to monitor the temperature regime... If in the room it is above + 35˚С, then more buds with pollen will be tied. In this case, the humidity in the greenhouse should not exceed 90%.
Special attention should be paid to cases when the activity of the sun reaches its peak. and the temperature regime in the greenhouse is growing rapidly. In such a situation, immediately after planting and in the process of caring for cucumber bushes, soft diffused lighting will be required. Experienced gardeners provide it by irrigating from the outside of the greenhouse wall with an aqueous solution of chalk.
Seed hardening will also help speed up the emergence of fruiting inflorescences.... The manipulation is carried out with swollen seeds. First, the cucumber seed is left on a damp cloth at room temperature to swell, then transferred to the refrigerator.
It is recommended to keep the seeds in the cold for two days, after which the seed is dried. Only after that sowing is carried out. Hardened seeds will germinate faster even at temperatures not exceeding + 10 ° C. They will give female buds earlier.
It can be useful:
Why cucumbers do not grow in a greenhouse: effective solutions
Requirements for the soil for cucumbers in the greenhouse and the rules for its preparation
Improper watering of cucumbers
If the recommended watering regime is not followed, the process of ovary formation is disrupted. Excessive moisture causes the same harm to vegetable crops as drought.
Moistening the garden on which the vegetable grows, adhere to the following recommendations:
- watered in the morning and evening hours;
- use only warm water.
It is recommended to water 2-3 times a week, and in a hot period - after 1 day. The best option for introducing moisture into the soil is the drip method.
Prophylaxis
Artificial pollination will eliminate the problem
If the cucumbers are blooming with barren flowers, it is important to quickly take appropriate measures to save the crop.
There are several ways to correct the situation:
- Covering bushes with foil in cold weather.
- Observe the watering regime and periodically carry out top dressing.
- Top dressing with organic fertilizers. You can use an infusion of cow dung with ash.
- Artificial pollination. This should be done by plucked male flowers, which must be carefully carried out along the growing female inflorescences. You can also do this with a paintbrush without picking off the empty flower.
You can also use specialized drugs. Products such as Ovary or Bud will not only help solve the problem with flowering, but also help increase the total number of ovaries.
Care rules
It is necessary to monitor the correct implementation of agrotechnical features that relate to:
- Glaze. It should be moderate (once every 3-4 days). During flowering, watering is stopped.
- Fertilizers. It is best to use organic feed. It is best to use a 1:15 solution of chicken manure.
- Pinching. The growth point is removed after 8-10 leaves. This procedure stimulates the formation of ovaries.
- Organizations of climatic features comfortable for the culture. It is important to provide warmth (favorable temperature 25-30 ° C) and sunlight.
In addition, in part, work on obtaining high-quality ovaries begins even before sowing the seeds. You should choose only varieties that are popular in a certain climatic zone from well-known manufacturers.
Prevention: the seeds need to be warmed up before planting, keeping them for 1-2 hours in the oven at a temperature of 40-50 ° C or drying them for several days on a battery. They should also be soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate.
Incorrect feeding
With unbalanced feeding of a vegetable crop, a large number of barren flowers are also formed.A common cause of this phenomenon is an excess amount of nitrogen compounds in the soil, which contribute to the lush growth of leaves and barren flowers.
During the period of flowering and the formation of ovaries, fertilizers containing nitrogen can be dispensed with, and phosphate fertilizers and wood ash can be used for feeding.
Important! An improvement in fruiting is noted with the use of organic fertilizers: mullein and poultry droppings.
Is there a difference between the causes of barren flowers in the open field and in the greenhouse
In greenhouse conditions, barren flowers are formed more often. This is because pollination is more difficult. To cope with the problem, it is recommended to spray the plants with honey water. At the same time, open the door to the greenhouse so that insects can get there.
Expert opinion
Stanislav Pavlovich
Gardener with 17 years of experience and our expert
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It is easier to comply with the temperature conditions. You need to maintain no more than 30 degrees. And also keep the humidity within 90%.
Density of crops
To save space on the site, sometimes gardeners plant cucumbers thickly. Insufficient spacing between rows and individual plants leads to poor ovary formation and reduced crop yields.
When planting, you must adhere to the following standards:
- the distance between plants in a row should be 15-25 cm (depending on the variety);
- row spacing - 70-90 cm.
If these requirements are ignored, cucumbers do not develop well, and they lack the female type of flowering.
With the right choice of seed material and adherence to the rules of agricultural technology, it is possible to avoid the massive appearance of barren flowers and get a good harvest.
Why are there a lot of barren flowers on greenhouse cucumbers
There are several reasons why empty ovaries appear on plants:
- bad seeds;
- sowing errors, too dense arrangement of seedlings;
- temperature below 16 degrees, cold or extreme heat. Temperatures above 30 are considered unfavorable for the formation of ovaries;
- watering errors, both too rare and very frequent watering are harmful;
- a lot of shade over the beds, lack of sunny color;
- very cold water used for irrigation;
- problems with the soil, sometimes it contains an excess of certain substances or, on the contrary, there is a lack of them;
- insufficient pollination.
Appearance
Self-pollinated cucumber varieties do not need insect assistance when pollinating. As a rule, it is these plant varieties that are grown in greenhouses or even on window sills. In such varieties, the flower has both a pistil and a stamen at the same time.
For planting in the beds, experts advise planting cucumbers pollinated by bees. It has been proven that they are much more resistant to various negative factors: changeable weather or insufficient watering.
If a bee-pollinated variety is chosen, do not forget about the additional attraction of bees to the site, for this planting you need to spray with sweet water (1 spoon of honey or sugar per 300 ml of water). If disturbances and failures occur in the process of pollination, the number of "male" inflorescences increases and this is directly reflected in the quantity and quality of the crop.
Reasons for the appearance
It is easy to distinguish the sex of a flower. The male does not have a thickening at the base, they grow immediately on the stem.
Important! When a barren flower appears, gardeners cut it off, this is prohibited. After all, without pollen, the ovary will not occur, and the female flowers will dry out and die.
The appearance of barren flowers is mainly due to poor quality seeds and improper plant care. Main reasons:
- planting fresh seeds;
- watering;
- heat or cold;
- lighting;
- top dressing;
- sowing tightness.
When gardeners harvest seeds, they notice that it is better to use old material with a two or three year shelf life for planting. More feminine flowers will form from it. And fresh (last year's) will give empty flowers.However, the use of the latter is also allowed, but with heat treatment. To make the seeds older, they are hung near the boiler or placed next to the battery for 3 months.
Cucumbers do not like cold water, the optimal watering temperature is about 23-250C. So that there are no male flowers, irrigation is stopped before flowering. This will give female stimulation. When the soil begins to dry out and an ovary forms, watering is resumed.
The ambient temperature affects the cucumber crop. The plant loves warmth, therefore, when the thermometer is at 270C and above, reproduction does not occur. Male flowers are "sterilized", no ovary is formed. In the case of a cold summer, fertilization will be very slow.
For planting cucumbers, you should choose a bright place; in a darkened one, you will not be able to harvest a good harvest. As the plant grows, the leaves can overlap and create shade. They also pay attention to the distance between the beds so that they are not cramped.
Feeding cucumbers is taken seriously. If you overdo it with nitrogen fertilizer, the plant will begin to produce more green leaves, but not fruit. He is comfortable and does not need to think about the offspring. Potassium-phosphorus dressings are better suited no more than 4 times per season.
How to deal with the wasteland
In order not to face the appearance of a large number of barren flowers, it is better to take care of preventive measures. To do this, planting cucumbers does not need to be carried out in a dry and too hot part of the garden. You also need to take into account the location of the site: low or high ground. Both are not desirable, but the ideal option would be to place cucumbers on trellises. The stems curling along the supports will receive a sufficient amount of light and heat.
The second important condition is that the soil must be enriched with all the necessary nutrients for the full development of cucumbers. There should not be a lot of nitrogen in the soil so that the vegetative mass does not develop to the detriment of fruiting processes.
If a lot of barren flowers have formed on the stems, it is recommended to feed the plants with liquid organic fertilizers. For this, a solution is made either from bird droppings and water in a ratio of 1:20, or from cow dung diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10.
If cucumbers are grown in greenhouses, then you need to take care of creating a microclimate that is comfortable for vegetables. For this, the greenhouse is equipped with windows and doors, airing from time to time. It is also recommended to mulch the soil if the cucumbers are planted outdoors. This will reduce the influence of unsuitable weather conditions.
Another way to balance the number of male and female inflorescences is mechanical removal of barren flowers. But there is one "but" that gardeners mention. In some cases, female flowers wilt after male flowers have been torn off.
When to sound the alarm
Complaining about the appearance of a barren flower, inexperienced summer residents pick off flowers. This is explained by the fact that they are useless, rob the plant of strength and nutrition. But without the pollen produced by "men", the formation of zelents is impossible. Female flowers wither and fall off without giving an ovary. Therefore, you cannot break off the pacifiers.
On a note! It is recommended to remove only weakened, deformed or withered barren flowers.
The alarm is raised when the number of dummies without embryos begins to significantly exceed the number of female flowers. Noticing that yellow "bells" without mother cells bloom one after another on the plants in the beds or in greenhouses, they take measures and correct the agricultural technique.
Home-grown cucumber varieties
The condition for the success of work in obtaining tasty crispy greens is the correct choice of the variety. The main thing here is not to make a mistake, otherwise you can be left without a crop or try just a couple of fruits.When buying seeds, read the description on the bag carefully.
Requirements for varieties of cucumbers for home cultivation:
- are intended specifically for closed ground: in a room (balcony, windowsill) or in a greenhouse,
- capable of long-term, at least 5-6 months, fruiting,
- cross-pollinated varieties require manual pollination (this process is quite laborious),
- parthenocarpic fruits form fruits without pollination of flowers with pollen. In such varieties, almost only female flowers are present on the stem, from which cucumbers are formed. So don't worry about the lack of masculine pieces. There are no seeds in such fruits.
If you only have seeds for open ground, then remember that at home you can get a slightest harvest only with very late sowing - April-May and artificial pollination.
