How to hand pollinate a cucumber plant | Food Production and Preservation | Forums

So I had some issues with my cucumbers not pollinating. What I was seeing was all the tiny fruiting bodies opening their flowers , and then literally "dying on the vine"

B17 directed me to some page he found (thanks again B!) and they had instructions on how to hand pollinate. Here's what I did (with great success I might add!)

First off, there are two different flowers you'll find on the plant:

The male flower - no fruit behind it...

...and the female flower - this one is obvious, it has what will become your cucumber.

To hand pollinate you basically find yourself a nice, open male flower like this

gently pluck the leaves off leaving the inner part with the pollen sacs intact - then you take that part and gently touch it to the inside of an open female flower and BANG! you're done!

If it takes, within a day the flower on the fruit should shrivel up, and withing 3 or 4 days you should notice some growth and swelling in your cucumber.

Success!