novice, Do you know if your cukes blooms are male or female? I have a armenian cuke that is full of male blooms right now, just waiting on the female blooms. Then I have some cool breeze cukes that have little cukes on them now. I really don't know if heat can affect them, but it has been in the 90s here also. I've never hand pollinated anything, so can't help with that.
I am just being patient with my armenian.
Good luck,
josieoh-05

Thanks josieoh, never worried about pollination with all the honeybees we ususally have. It's so odd- I haven't seen one this year.
The cukes are marketmore, and I'm not sure if the flowers are female, I just know that in the past when there were this many, cukes were forming immediately.
Not sure if heat is a factor, just wondering. Upper 90s here with no rain!!!

If you want to make sure, you can hand pollinate them.
Pick a male flower, wide open its petals and lower it to females, giving them a nice kiss.
Females will be attached to a tiny cuke but it will die/rot if not pollinated.
Heat can be a factor too. My cukes have slowed down quite a bit too. We have highs in upper 90s.
Beans have perfect flowers and need no pollinators, winds or anything.

As Cyrus mentioned you can hand pollenate. The female flowers have a mini cucumber attached to their base. I always hand pollenate mine so I don't need to worry about whether they're getting pollenated. Just pick a male flower, rip off all the petals, and then twirl the resulting stump in the female flowers. You can pollenate multiple female flowers with a single male flower. If pulling flowers and petals make you squeamish, a q-tip will also work to transfer pollen from male to female.

Wow, I never knew about the male and female flowers on cukes. I have quite a few females on my Homemade Pickles and have picked two cukes so far.

My tomatoes are also fruiting so I think the bees are doing their job here.

thanks cyrus and mcphreak!!!! I know what I'll be doing this evening.

All I gotta say to this is thank god I have plenty of bees in my garden so I don't have to go out and mate my cucumbers. (Whoever thought they'd be saying that in a legitimate sentence?!) ;)

It was 99 today here with a dew point >70. My cukes are wilty, mildwey and I am not expecting much from them this year. They have flowers but the leaves wilt and are not handling the humidity well. I have zero production from them as of today.

Next year I am changing to veggies other than cucurbits. I have no luck with them, whether it's due to the weather in my area or me (the farmers do well with them here, so I think that says I have a problem!).

I wouldn't panic about your cukes not being pollinated, though you can pollinate them yourself if you ARE worried. I have worried inordinately about the loss of honeybee colonies until recently, but nature fills the niches.

There are hundreds of pollinators that you may not be aware of besides honeybees, which are not native anyway. The other pollinators include ants, flies, large and tiny wasps, as well as many varieties of native American bees.

About 3/4s of the way down the page is a list of wildflowers that natives bees are attracted to. Plant some so the bees will visit your garden, too.

Lol, I told somebody I had to go "mate" my cucumbers and you shoulda seen the looks on their faces!
I've never had to do that before. I gave it some time before I realized their was a problem. I've grown these type of cukes before, and even with a dx, wilted, yellow leaves, they still put out cukes!!
These plants are robust, growing quickly, healthy and green. They aren't being pollinated.
Another odd thing?
The only bugs in my garden this year? Ants and some flea beetles (my bean plants tell me this.)
I don't use any pesticides, although neighbors do. I just thought it was odd.
I was hoping due to lack of honeybees, bumblebees or something else would do the job, but they aren't.
Next I'll have to "mate" my zukes, too?

lisalu,

hee hee hee that was great.

I too, am pleased to have bees do the job.

~boxer

What look do you think people have on their faces when I talk about raping my squash?!? And here you all are, complaining about funny reactions to your talking about mating them...

Pollinators are not very present in Montreal (zone 5), and many neighbours complain about cukes blooming like crazy without ever producing anything worthy of being eaten. I think big city pollution has something to do with this. I would be interested to know whether those who say their cukes are growing live in rural areas or in cities.

Nature does fill in the voids eventually, but it takes time.

Viktoria, what do you mean by raping squash? I'm growing zucchini for the first time this yr, and I've got blooms and not sure how those guys work.

NEW question about cukes: if the female flower is closed, does that mean it has been pollinated and will become the cucumber?
Thanks for all the knowledge and help!!!!