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kawaiineko_gardener

help with gardening terminologies

Long story short, in 2009 I tried to grow a typical cucumber; one that has male and female blossoms, requires insect pollination.

It bore blossoms and immature baby cucumbers; however they shriveled up and died, and I was told the cause of this was lack of and/or poor pollination.

This year I ordered a seed packet that was referred to as 'parthenocarpic', meaning it can set fruit without insect pollination.

This is where I become confused, because I saw another gardening terminology about cucumbers (and zucchini) that don't require insect pollination referred to as 'gynecious', which means it's all-female, with a 10% pollinator added.

The main question I have about this, is a parthenocarpic variety, all-female, or is it mostly female, but still has some male blossoms, OR is it neither of these, and simply means it's self-pollinating, meaning it doesn't require pollination from insects to set blossoms, and have the fruit reach maturity.

I could really use clarification with both of these terminologies, because they're so similar, that it's causing some confusion to me. I saw these terminologies in a seed catalog, when perusing the varieties of cucumbers they had to offer, and up until that point, had never heard of them.

With the 'gynecious' does this mean that it's all-female blossoms, and is self pollinating, meaning it doesn't require insect pollination to set blossoms and bare fruit. OR, does a gynecious variety mean it's simply all female, but still requires insect pollination?

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