Cucumber varieties planted together ???? - Ask Extension
Hello from Glenwood Springs!
I am planning to plant 4 varieties of cucumbers: Boston pickling, Parisian pickling , Muncher and Beit Alpha.
My questi...
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Cucumber varieties planted together ???? #780747
Asked January 24, 2022, 7:09 PM EST
Hello from Glenwood Springs!
I am planning to plant 4 varieties of cucumbers: Boston pickling, Parisian pickling , Muncher and Beit Alpha.
My question is: Should I space these 4 varieties far apart in my garden to avoid cross-pollination??
Garfield County Colorado
Expert Response
Hi Mark,
My apologies for the long delay, this question was just assigned to me. That is a great question!
In general, you do not have to worry about the quality of this year's crop being affected by cross pollination between cucumber varieties. The exception is cross pollination between parthenocarpic varieties and standard varieties. Parthencarpic varieties set fruit without pollination so these are going to be the seedless varieties. If the seedless variety is cross pollinated by a standard variety then the resulting fruit will contain seeds. I do not think the varieties you mentioned are seedless varieties though so you do not need to worry about that. The other exception is saving seed to plant out the following year. If you want to save the seed then you do need to prevent cross pollination to maintain each variety. The distance that the need to be kept apart to prevent cross pollination is not practical for home gardeners though (at least a half mile). You could hand pollinate and then either net the entire plant to exclude insects or bag/tape shut new male and female flowers as they are forming (before they open, but just beginning to show a bit of yellow or orange color) to prevent insect pollination.
Best,
Denyse
My apologies for the long delay, this question was just assigned to me. That is a great question!
In general, you do not have to worry about the quality of this year's crop being affected by cross pollination between cucumber varieties. The exception is cross pollination between parthenocarpic varieties and standard varieties. Parthencarpic varieties set fruit without pollination so these are going to be the seedless varieties. If the seedless variety is cross pollinated by a standard variety then the resulting fruit will contain seeds. I do not think the varieties you mentioned are seedless varieties though so you do not need to worry about that. The other exception is saving seed to plant out the following year. If you want to save the seed then you do need to prevent cross pollination to maintain each variety. The distance that the need to be kept apart to prevent cross pollination is not practical for home gardeners though (at least a half mile). You could hand pollinate and then either net the entire plant to exclude insects or bag/tape shut new male and female flowers as they are forming (before they open, but just beginning to show a bit of yellow or orange color) to prevent insect pollination.
Best,
Denyse
