How to Hand Pollinate Cucumbers for Higher Yields

[@mferrarorace]

I just did my cukes and cantaloupe today. I give them a little wine first.

[@notanurse2373]

I find Sade works wonders...makes all the petals drop.

[@ronaldokelberry228]

I just can’t do it when I hear all that wineing.

[@KerrifollowerofChrist]

I was having a really bad day when I looked for solutions to my cucumber problem.. After this new info I thought God had such a good sense of humor. A little something something should fix her right up. Love your humor, thanks I needed that.

[@darrelldunman3627]

I talk dirty to mine. They like it. I do the electric toothbrush now on my tomatoes and now they don't respond as well to just fingering

[@dylbrody9666]

And a cigarette after? Not near the tomatoes of course.😆😆

[@annettendes7490]

I use little paint brush. Just touch male flower then transfer pollen to female. It's easy and fast. And you can repeat it too :-)

[@tomwilson7452]

I found my male pollen wasn't sticky enough to get hold of with a brush so just did what the guy said to do

[@poolman8676]

@@tomwilson7452 With success?

[@tomwilson7452]

@@poolman8676 yes indeed, I had so many cucumbers I pickled 5 jars worth and ate another 6 raw in salads and gave away at least another 6, all from 3 plants. I had the plants trained up a 8ft trellis and across under the roof on bamboo stick hangers in my greenhouse. Having said that I had about the same amounts outside in the raised planters that I didnt manually pollinate. Im over Cucumbers now 🙄 but they sure are fun to grow.

[@poolman8676]

@@tomwilson7452 that is so cool. Tons of flowers and little cucumbers but they're not getting pollinated because there's no bees here in the desert of Southern California apparently. I'm going to do what Luke said. I did it with the squash and it works but then the ants eat the sticky stuff out of the male flowers. I hope I get as many as you did. Thanks again

[@poolman8676]

@NANI it could be lack of sun. It could be too much water. Or it could just be that they're really young and they're not ready. I've had all three problems, LOL

[@Daniellextina87]

Newbie gardener here! This was very helpful! I have a small patio and have to to containers so I’m looking forward to how my cucumbers turn out.

[@faithfulgab]

Same!! Also a newbie & have a super small backyard. I know this was 2+ yrs ago, but how'd your cucumbers turn out??!

[@nancyrhoads5609]

I planted a cucumber for pickling this spring in my indoor grow area. I lost the first female even though I pollinated, but your method is much better! I will try that tomorrow as one of the female cucumber flowers will be opening. Thanks again :)

[@DavidGarcia-nw3xu]

skip to @2:08 seconds for the video

[@ArticleTen]

Thanks.

[@ridealongryan]

Cheers big tits

[@truthbetold1074]

Thank you..

[@mynameisv5034]

Thank you!!!

[@denniseandlarry]

Mahalos

[@elliekelley164]

LOL I had a bad day today... Running across this video totally erased my bad mood ! 😄 I now have a Smile 😃😃😃 Thanks for the Great Birds n Bees lesson. LOL. Priceless!!!!

[@lolahpeppers]

Luke this cracks me up. My boyfriend has a huge, lush lumberjack beard. I constantly beg him NEVER to shave the beard. The boy regularly reminds/threatens me that the weather is getting hot and the beard will be shaved at some point. He hasn't shaved it in the 5 years we've been dating though. When he does trim the beard, at night I fall asleep next to him and I think I feel the "phantom" full beard when it isn't there. I wake up and it's somewhat traumatic to me because I am so used to falling asleep with my face buried in his wild, soft beard! The boyfriend has won every single beard growing contest that his friends and family have ever entered him in. The boy did ask me recently to cut his long very hot wavy long hair, so I'm game to do that as long as he #SavestheBeard!

[@tumbleweeddenise]

Thank you so much for that video. I was very confused about how to pollinate by hand. I have a small pumpkin one of my hydroponic plants and I just assumed that it had been pollinated already. So now I know that the flower on the end of it needed to be pollinated. So now I know what to do, and again thanks for the video.

[@AshleighHarris13]

Oh my word- people are crazy. You look great! New follower and super excited to use this method in our house as the snow is blowing and my plants are flowering. Gonna get busy with them lol I might even wear a bee costume lol

[@KerrifollowerofChrist]

And some good tunes with the lights down low lol

[@valeriebronz7130]

Much faster to just get paint brush twirl in male flower then paint it on female

[@cassandraqcassandraq5510]

Thats what I was thinking.

[@sarapulford5957]

@@cassandraqcassandraq5510 🇬🇧 Right. Paint brush it is. This looks extremely tedious.

[@hisbeautifultruth5931]

Because i know id drop it and spend a good deal of the day looking for it.

[@jamesball5743]

The old reach around for the male flower move.

[@hisbeautifultruth5931]

Dont know about anyone else but my heart rate increased while watching this. Ijs----😊

[@poolman8676]

That was hot!! Lol Well that explains why I don't have any cucumbers but a whole heck of a lot of flowers. I'm going to do that tonight

[@tomaroni6670]

A friend of mine suggested a battery powered toothbrush...bought a $4 kids battery powered toothbrush...simply turn it on and touch the center of each bloom with the vibrating toothbrush...easy and amazing results...happy brushing!

[@DIVINGWITHPURPOSE413]

THANKS DO MUCH LUKE! I AM GROWING CUCUMBERS IN CONTAINERS AND WE DON'T HAVE MANY BEES ON MY PATIO. THIS VIDEO WAS VERY HELPFUL

[@rjones4748]

Same here. I've been so sad thinking they aren't ever going to fruit.

[@shivanshsingh9350]

Thanks for the info, I have just planted some seeds like 4-5 days ago, now I can see some seedlings, and the place where I live bees aren't very common so this will be very useful for me. Thanks once again!

[@neverlostforwords]

Ok great, I will try this tomorrow in the veggie garden. I am in Australia where it's been a hot summer and we have loads of cucumber flowers but only one or two cucumbers. I have been randomly dipping a paintbrush in and around each flower centre but now that I know the right technique, we will have more success.

[@neverlostforwords]

follow up: I went out there with the best of intentions however there were no male flowers, only female flowers. I will look out for male flowers each day.

[@caries1983]

Paintbrush (soft) even a qtip work, also. My nails are too long to use this method, I'd be dropping that tiny pollen sak.😅

[@LoriAvis]

So now I have to dig through all of your playlists to find you hydroponic setup! hahahahhhaha Thank you for this. Best Blessings from a Reborn Gardener =)

[@UniquelySustainable]

Thanks for this! I'm growing indoors on a tower and had no idea I had to hand pollinate, I found a few shriveled up female ones...definitely fixing that issue!

[@christinelikesme6206]

Awesome! I tried pollinating with a paint brush, but none of my cucumbers grew. Can't wait to try this out.

[@mangohouses]

I saw others suggesting ways like this too and it didn't work for me either

[@Golfingferdie]

Hello Luke, First time listener & watcher, I have been doing something like for a while with a Q tip. Just rub the flowers back and forth your bound the hit the right spot. works for me outdoors in winter hear in Florida. Summer sun just cooks everything not under shade cloth of some kind. Never really know what the male of female where, Thank You for the information. I know where to start next time.

[@laurascott7718]

Me too!

[@jimsmij]

I hand pollinate out doors too. I use a Q-Tip and hit every flower twice. Belt & suspenders. :)

[@anilkapur1584]

what is a q-tip please?

[@bazheller]

@@anilkapur1584 A cotton bud... Like the ones used to clean out ears and other places... :)

[@itsfoxx4756]

2:09 he shows you how to do it

[@harperwelch5147]

You look great with your beard! Don't listen to viewers when it comes to letting them own your appearance. That's crossing a line you don't want to let them cross. Be confident in being yourself. When someone feeds you a spoonful of poison, don't swallow.

[@Lyddiebits]

100%!!!

[@Jerry-rf8bn]

Good information. Thank you. I am curious to know how many female blossoms can be effectively pollinated with one male blossom.

[@larissacadena1352]

Hey Luke I would like to see more of your hydroponic setup real nice sir!

[@BreadAndGatorade]

I keep the stem on the male flower and then pull of the petals. It makes it easier to stick into the female flowers.

[@nosequeponer654]

Those flowers are so tasty when you fry them...

[@Gunz42611]

Great video but do you have a video of how u built that hydroponic bed looks good

[@magdapracsiu3096]

This has been very informative on all fronts. :) I am attempting to grow cucumbers indoors for the first time and I am trying to learn as much as I can. This is going to be very interesting. Thank you for sharing! Oh, and you look great!

[@greenerpastures1000]

Michigan's weather has been absolutely brutal this winter.

[@AshleighHarris13]

greenerpastures1000 same for MN April and a blizzard ❄️

[@IamKateIsabella]

Incredibly helpful. Thank you.

[@moniquepower8646]

Thanks for the information! I will certainly try this method of hand pollination.

[@thompsonann]

When I do not have sufficient pollinators in my gardens, I sing this little song (from my 2nd daughter who sees the world a little left of plum :) ) "Match maker, match maker make me a match..." as we go around hand pollinating our plants. It makes me smile, and feel happy and giving my plants a little extra love :) I usually have bumper crops when we do this !!

[@7891234able]

Ty. We don’t have any pollinators either. So I will try this. I have my first male bloom. Thanks to your other video. I now know all of this

[@JNYC-gb1pp]

You were so handsome back in 2015!! *still just as handsome now but I often forget coz I'm always watching your videos for gardening advice!

[@JanicePhillips]

Mators, cucs, & peppers in the grow tent! It's 7° outside and I'm gonna have a nice salad sans poison!

[@thuffman44]

Great video Luke ... Makes me want to try hand pollinating some of the blossoms on my eggplants. Thanks again for uploading yet another video...

[@MIgardener]

Tim Huffman Glad you liked it! Thank you for sticking around for yet another video :) Anything specific you want to see?

[@thuffman44]

It's all good information.... perhaps maybe a short-clip about 'how-to' cross pollinate vegetables of the same type? For example, this season I'm growing two heirloom tomato varieties Black Krimson & True Black Brandywine... I planted them into my garden already and alternated each plant so hopefully mother nature will do all the work of cross pollinating them... but if you have any tips, tricks, suggestions,etc it could be helpful

[@MIgardener]

Tim Huffman oooh i can try, but it is very tricky with tomatoes. One of the trickiest to be honest.

[@thuffman44]

oh really? Any type of plant will do then (peppers, cucumbers, etc). You could speak about which plants have a better success rate than others, and maybe even finish with another seed saving demonstration... I've never tried cross pollinating, and to be honest; I haven't been saving any seeds myself because I still have so many seeds left over in the package. But I gotta start practicing so I can start giving more seeds away to my friends and co-workers

[@MIgardener]

Tim Huffman There will definitely be more seed saving, as well as more complete growing guides, and a few cross pollinating videos.

[@mangohouses]

My baby cucumbers flowers have dried out! Is that the end of them!?

[@caries1983]

Question..what kind of nutrients are you using? PPM may be a bit high, many leaves are crispy around the edges. PH? I only grow Ganga in hydro, my cukes are all over my front & back yard (using fences for trellising)

[@Lunadare]

Not looking homeless at all. I definitely dig the scruffy look on you. Thanks for the cuke tips

[@lynnburish3868]

Thank you! I have a question.... how many "Pickling" Cucumber Plants would I need to grow to obtain an Ice Cream Pail full of Pickles? I'm not sure what the average number of pickles is per plant (?)

[@avaa2314]

Cucumbers were the first veg I pollinated (last sun). I was a bit weirded out at first and dropped the male inside the female where it got stuck and had to run upstairs and get tweezers. It hasn't been a full week yet and it's about 6-7" long. I just pollinated 2 more and don't get weirded out anymore. Zukes are easier to handle because the male is bigger😑

[@eshaambhattad888]

Bigger😏

[@indujadiasnanayakkara7832]

Do the male flowers come back in cucumbers after the first batch of males bloomed.I hv no male flowers not pollinate female ones

[@TheItalianGarden]

Next week in Oregon it supposed to be 66 at a high and 46 at night. extremely odd for this time of year, but i think we are getting a nice early spring this year on the west coast which is nice. Hope you get to warming up here soon luke!

[@MIgardener]

TheItalian Garden i hope it warms soon too.... my chin hopes it warms soon as well.

[@TheItalianGarden]

hahaha lol yeah i bet you chin does!

[@SoundOfFreedom67]

That's so nice that you can grow so well indoors - I'm jealous - great job!

[@MIgardener]

***** It takes patience for sure.

[@vngudes]

How do you keep you leaves looking so pretty? mine has lots of powdery mildew and yellowing dying leaves, those and my yellow squash and zucchini. any tips or suggestions? I am watering at the base trying not to wet the leaves. thanks

[@poolman8676]

You're probably receive an answer to your question by now. I had the same thing happened last year. This year I have planted a lot of companion plants like peppermint chives and basil right next to it. So far so good...

[@PinkChucky15]

Your cucumber plants are looking really great. This is going to be a very helpful video, I think I might plant cucumbers this year too :-)

[@marykater.7169]

I was half expecting the video to go into slow motion and some funky music start to play...

[@melissakingery3545]

Luke so I have a question if your using a regular cucumber male plant on a pickling female what will happen?

[@gapey]

I was just thinking about this because I was considering growing my cucumbers in the greenhouse and wasn't sure if they would need my assistance in pollinating if I grew them there. So you only need to pollinate each flower once or should you do it a few times?

[@wanboo02]

+Gapeys Grub Yes, once.

[@helenmary9628]

The beard is great!!! God bless u!!!

[@nygrlinnv]

Hi Luke, I am growing cucumbers but they grew in yellow and fat. They never even turned green. Do you know why that could have happened? I'm in zone 9A.

[@dougmorissette459]

I have Sweet Success Hybrid self pollinating cucumbers that only grow the flower on the end of the cucumber. My actual number of cucumbers that don’t grow past 2 inches long and turn yellow then die is quite high. Can I still use the same method to ensure a better success rate?

[@gardeningtipswithphil2244]

Great pollination tip there Luke. Got to hand pollinate when growing indoors, bet a lot of people forget that.

[@MIgardener]

Gardening Tips With Phil I almost forgot too!

[@igitahimsa5871]

You look just fine. Thank you for posting this great video, I'm adding tweezers to my gardening tools :-).

[@offgridliving1196]

This is a great video. Thank you

[@coose1954]

thank you for showing this.i have a question if you will answer it.i have planted over 100 seeds of cucumbers in a pots with tomatoes and i dont have any cucumbers or i cant tell the difference of tomatoes or cucumbers, ok i know im late big time in planting them.. started in the middle of june. tomatoes are growing fine but no cucumbers,, can you help? ( planted seeds of cucumbers from the cucumber itsself. i also did the washing and letting the bad ones float took them out cause i read the ones that float are no good.

[@ettoremarinello3951]

watched for educational purpose, smashed like because of the agreement with mother nature

[@leefu2000]

Cucumber pimp! Great vid, I had about eight plants and only two cucumbers so this will help immensely.

[@Brenda0312F]

I hand pollenate my squash...and it works great! 🌼🥰🌼

[@poolman8676]

I do too. But then the ants eat the pollen of the male flowers. Then a squash seems to die out. That's really frustrating.

[@omna1]

In britain the traditional method is to use a paintbrush to pick up the pollen and just dab it on the flowers, best to avoid synthetic brushes tho because the pollen doesn't stick to the fibres well

[@MIgardener]

Omna Allen that is why I didn't mention that method. It totally works, but I find most people don't have good brushes and it leads to poor results.

[@omna1]

you really are a gardening guru, thanks for all the video's and keep up the good work

[@MIgardener]

Omna Allen haha I wouldn't ever say guru. Always more to learn. I HAVE learned that too many people carry those cheapo kids craft brushes, and they are synthetic fibers. HORRIBLE for transferring pollen.

[@alennislopez4162]

Do you find that the male flowers open up before the female flowers? First timer here. I got a lot of male flowers open and female ones closed

[@camezcua08]

What happens if I only have male flowers on my plant??

[@brucewillis4604]

camezcua08 it’s just bad luck. Some breeds can have really bad ratios of male to female flowers so to prevent that I order PF( predominantly female) flowering seeds from eBay. With monoecious plants they tend to have more male flowers and the male flowers tend to develop earlier in order for pollen to be already ready when the females develop. This could also be what’s happening with your plants

[@MM-td6mg]

Same problem, all male flowers. No female ones yet

[@MayankBadhan]

What did I just watch 😂

[@ziggybender9125]

PRO TIP for people who want to use this technique but save some time and money. Every video suggests using paint brushes or q-tips or tooth brushes to get the job done and I'm here to tell you that's not needed. Go outside and find a piece of grass that's grown a bit, observe the stem and you should see lots of short hairs on the stem. The hair on grass stems works wonderfully for hand pollination and you'll notice the hairs perform very similar to the hairs on a honeybee. So you simply get to go out to your squash plant, pluck a piece of grass, pollinate, and then chuck the piece of grass right back on the ground and walah you've saved yourself time and money.

[@davidskroch7151]

Do some pruning also as they grow.

[@kenrickromeo9301]

you told me what to do and showed me how to do it.thank you.

[@rjones4748]

What are you growing your cucumber in? I've never seen this method please share if you haven't already please

[@karimalameddine5092]

Do we have to do that for all the flowers? Thanks for the info!

[@lizlaksh8579]

Well u look handsome without specs n with beard....I m a beginner in gardening...thanx for this video...Will definitely try hand pollinating my cucumbers....

[@kimlace2724]

That was very helpful

[@valleyfishing1402]

Where can I get this shirt? I've looked on your website before and didn't see this one.

[@yvsatyanarayana8520]

Good nice explanation I like it

[@stevesauro9843]

What is the mat your using? Can it be used for outdoors as a week barrier?

[@shannonwylie9419]

If it is in a regular garden would it be beneficial to trim back some of the cucumber leaves in order to let the flowers be more visible to bees or is that not something that should be done. I saw another video where a guy did that to his squash plants. Maybe it would ruin the cucumber plant or damage it. Thank you.

[@BRadWilson3]

Hey Luke, are you still running the 6500k lights? Or are you running some warmer colors to make fruit? Thanks

[@MIgardener]

Brad B I have not changed a thing. Proof that you can grow just about anything and the lights don't matter all that much.

[@SetitesTechAdventures]

Thanks for the video, my cukes haven't shown any female flowers yet. What kind of lighting are you using. I like how bright white your setup is though it looks like LED. My LEDs look fuscia.

[@MIgardener]

+setite That is because my lights are CFL bulbs. LED bulbs are more fuchsia and they need the blue spectrum as well as the red.

[@SetitesTechAdventures]

+MIgardener | Simple Organic Gardening & Sustainable Living Yea sorry, I figured that out after the comment. I went through some other videos and saw that.

[@ceh4702]

Loved the video. I am trying to grow some Korean green ball squash. Peace Out Baby.

[@candacemissthang1907]

Are you still growing food using hydroponics? I've only ever seen it at Epcot on The Land ride. What about aeroponic growing?

[@mandiegarrett1706]

How would you know which female flower you have already pollinate? If you pollinate a bunch of female flowers then tomorrow you might get more female flowers open up but if don't somehow mark it then how would you tell the difference of the one already done and not done. Thanks.

[@AmandaLaggan]

Very educational video! 😏

[@tonyzarzecki5408]

As a mailman I grow face hair to keep warm walking 8 miles everyday in MIchigan winters.

[@poolman8676]

Uphill both ways imagine..

[@hagimulyas.7599]

nice video Luke! can u tell me how to pollinate Vanilla?

[@cityofoaks]

God certainly knew what He was doing when He designed our planet.

[@poolman8676]

Amen!!

[@indujadiasnanayakkara7832]

After the first batch of male flowers bloomed, there were no more to pollinate the later female flowers .Do those male flowers come back?

[@siegoldie779]

I'm growing some mini cucumbers this year and I've left the suckers on to grow now the main stem is producing a single cucumber each node but the suckers are producing 2 cucumbers per node is this normal for them to do this

[@stuntstyle777]

Greetings sir, Firstly, I'd like to say that your facial hair is nice and I'm sure you can't go wrong either way. and I personally like how you handled that. ... Well, this was an informative and fun video. New subscriber here Thank you

[@sweetyd8103]

Is it ok to manually pollinate wet flowers? I watered the plants and noticed one male and one female flower, but they were already wet by then. I did try to hand pollinate, but wondering if that will work or not.

[@jmseipp]

Could you use an artists paint brush instead?

[@splitshot71]

Well said sir. 👍

[@joyshw9831]

thanks for the info, my cucumbers have been growing for little less then 2 months now n starts to flowers but it's only male flowers, is there something wrong or females will come soon , have this happen to anyone, and what would be the cause of that n the cure ?

[@evankoh7515]

Hi, my hydroponic cucumber have clawed like leaves only on new leaves, suspect its nutrient deficiency. May i know whats the recommended EC?

[@jaderose8385]

Can you tell me the name of the kind of cucumber plant that does not need to be pollinated ? I need to get them , can't remember the name . thanks

[@josephauld6565]

Does the growing light raise your power bill by much?

[@blakis21]

Do you use trifecta as your nutrients when you use your hydroponic set up?

[@MIgardener]

No I do not. Trifecta is not 100% water soluble.

[@gardenfairies792]

I grow in containers - and it has its own compost inside and also ollas clay post for self watering - and it does just fine. all these other thing don't need to be added to it. let nature do it thing.

[@whoooami2090]

Good thing to know, thank you!

[@drskrana7302]

Great dude: Pierce a stick at the back of flower before plucking petals. The stick would help you doing easy & deep pollination.

[@wablablergh6651]

Hi, I have a question. My cucumber just started having flowers, but they wilt right away a day or two after they bloom. is this normal? the leaves are doing fine though.

[@MinecraftCuter]

yes it´s normal:)

[@jazz_turtle]

Oof. I need a cigarette.

[@kimbrolyy]

I planted my seeds a little over a month ago. I just seem to have male flowers on my plant, no female ones so far. Do I just have to be patient?

[@kennethmoravec148]

What is the silver backing under your plants?

[@MycketTuff]

Reflective material on the hydroponic trays.

[@Shellz194]

I had to female cucumbers, I didn't know to pollinate them, so they shriveled. Will the female cucumbers grow back over time? Or is that it for the plant. I have a lot of male flowers.

[@MIgardener]

Shellz194 There will be more female flowers coming out, they will happen all along the stem of the plant as it grows.