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Post by spacecase0 on Jun 23, 2016 11:13:55 GMT -5
so my cucumbers all have sterile male flowers this year, I started with the straight 8 variety 3 generations ago, and all was good the first 2 generations, I could understand getting shipped the wrong seeds and getting this issue the second year, anyone have ideas as to what may have happened ?
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 26, 2016 16:39:26 GMT -5
First, you're sure that the flowers are male sterile, and it's not just a case of pollen being inviable due to weather conditions? Assuming you have a case of real male sterility, I honestly, I don't know what happened. But I am going to speculate a little. I saw an article that indicates that it's possible for a mutation to naturally occur that causes a plant to have sterile male flowers: journal.ashspublications.org/content/119/4/804.full.pdf. The flowers look generally normal, but on close inspection it can be observed that the anthers are rudimentary and the flowers do not produce any pollen. If there are other cucumber plants nearby with fertile male flowers, their pollen will pollinate the female flowers on the male sterile plants and produce normal-seeming fruit. However, some of the plants grown from those seeds will be male sterile. So if you had a male sterile plant along with some male fertile plants last year you might not have noticed, (a) because the male flowers on the male sterile plants look generally normal and (b) the male fertile plants would have provided pollen so that you got a crop. It would be easy to unwittingly save seeds from the male sterile plant and increase the likelihood of getting more male sterile plants the following year. If you are growing a small number of plants, you could have had the bad luck to plant only seeds with the male sterile mutation this year. Like I said, the above is speculation on my part. But all the causes of true male sterility that I know of are genetic. So, regardless of what actually happened, I suggest that you cull those plants and get fresh seeds from another source. Do you have enough season left to replant?
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Post by spacecase0 on Jun 26, 2016 17:42:09 GMT -5
thank you for your research and replying,
pretty sure the flowers are male sterile,
I think you are correct about what happened, not much else would explain what happened I can start over with new seeds (very happy I got seeds from at least a few sources for each variety so that I can start over ) have to be on the watch for this issue in the future when I save seeds
not sure about enough time to replant, I did stop by the store and get a cucumber plant, it looks like it is about 2 weeks from having flowers figured I could get pollen from it to use on the others, can't save seeds from any of that this year, but that is ok, I just really want some cucumbers to eat last year was a crop failure due to insects, so I am really missing them
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 27, 2016 11:10:54 GMT -5
I got the impression from reading that article that this mutation is pretty uncommon. You probably won't run into it again. (But I bet you'll be paranoid enough to carefully examine the male flowers on your cucumbers in the future. ) Good plan to get a pollen donor plant for this season. I hope you get some cucumbers!
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