I was under the impression that most cucumbers were self pollinating, like tomatoes. Certainly all the ones I have grown are.

All cucurbits have seperate male and female flowers and are normally insect pollinated. Hand pollination can be used in the absence of appropriate insects. There are parthenocarpic varieties. Sweet Success, Euro-American, Socrates, Tyria, Diva, Tasty Jade Suyo Long for example. They are all European green house hybrids that when grown without cross pollination tend to be seedless. When you only have one plant sometimes you will have problems getting the males and females to blossom at the same time.

Well, I had read that Sweeter yet are bred to have more female flowers than male, which is happening to the extreme for me. I found 1 or 2 more male flowers but they are both days away from blooming. So, I feel like I will probably lose at least 15 female flowers without being pollinated. I don't have enough bugs to help with it, so I was going to have to do it by hand. But since the only male flower I found that had bloomed, didnt have any pollen coming out, I do not know what to do!

How do you know the male from female? Im new to all this and trying to learn everything i can.

About Hand pollination:

I have done it many many times with bottle gourds.
Pick a fresh male flower gently and remove its petals, Gently again. Bring it to a female and give them a soft kiss. (after all it is a love affair !). go to the next and do the same. the next. You don't have to shake it and expect to see polins all over.

cb garden. female flowers will be on baby cucumbers. Male flowers on a straight stem.

I had another male flower finally open. Again, not getting ANY pollen from it. I used different types of soft paintbrushes, but nothing. I also make the males kiss the females in a last ditch attempt!

Sadly, my fanfare cucumbers aren't growing as fast as my sweeter yet, so I don't have any other options when it comes to pollinating the sweeter yet cukes.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

I have the same problem I've had six or seven male flowers open now on my spacemaster cucumber plant and there is no pollen I've tried a soft small paintbrush I've tried Q-tips I've tried dipping the male into the female I'm getting no results

Thank you I'll try that way

Funny......I decided to try this on my butternut squash, 'cause when the female flowers finally opened, the fruit would be aborted. I just thought the male flowers were too far away from the females (I have them on a tall trellis and the male blossoms are on the bottom and the females on top). So I went out with a q-tip and tried to fertilize the female flower myself.......but I couldn't 'see' any pollen on the q tip. Having read about other people not seeing either, I'm thinking it's just too small to see. I think we're used to seeing that yellow pollen stuck to bee's, etc. Anyhow......it's a good suggestion to force them to have sex by cramming the male flower's whatchamacallit into the female blossom. (Sorry to be crude). :)