Full row of pickles, thousands of blossoms swarms of honey bees, no fruit?

[yardiron]

I planted a 20ft row of pickles, direct sowed and one that was seeded early and planted as seedlings. Only the direct sowed row survived. The seedlings did fine for a month then died off.

The surviving row is now 6 foot tall, growing on wire cages. Each vine has blossoms ever 6 inches, but no pickles? The blossoms a recovered all day long with honey bees so they should be getting pollinated. There's a separate plant every 18" and they've now surpassed 6ft. They didn't really take off till the first really warm spell we got, then they went nuts but usually I've got pickles by now.

I've never seen so many blossoms before, or such aggressive vines. The seeds came from a new source, a supplier in the midwest. The other seeds I bought there have all done well.

The blossoms are small but these are supposed to be small pickle sized cucumbers, last season I grew Burpee seeds and got pickles that were huge in only a matter of days. We've had a ton of rain lately too, so things are growing pretty fast lately. Today was the first day without at least some rain in two weeks but we're back to 100°F weather again for a few days.

Not sure what could be going on with the pickles though. The blossoms aren't dropping off, every one that came on is still there now, some are weeks old and haven't produced yet.

 

[Chuck]

It sounds like environmental conditions are not right. Extended temperatures above 85F and all you will get are male flowers on most monoecious varieties. Too much nitrogen will also cause all male flowers. Which variety do you have. Cucumbers are like squash in that at the beginning all the plant produces are male flowers but as the plant matures it starts to produce female flowers.

 

[Meadowlark]

... we're back to 100°F weather again for a few days.

That's your answer I believe. Mine won't set fruit above 90 deg F unfortunately as most of the summer here is that or above.

 

[yardiron]

I planted the seeds the last week of April, when night temps were staying above 60°F, they broke the surface at about 6 weeks, then did very little until the temps got really hot, then they went nuts, in the last two weeks they grew 4 feet or more and shot off 40 or so new vines in all directions. The first set blossoms at about 10 weeks, when they were only a foot tall and still barely getting established. They then did almost nothing until the one 105°F spell we had back in late June, and again now this week. I've never seen so many blossoms so close but they're small blossoms, no bigger than quarter when fully open, more funnel shaped then like a squash blossom.

They are fertilized with 10-10-10, once at planting and once when they started to set blossoms so far. The plants look super healthy, the fact that they've grown so tall with so many blossoms was a good sign but its not normal behavior going on past experience growing pickles. The plants I've grown in past years usually grew just as large but the blossoms were far apart and the first few always just dropped off and did nothing as the plant matured and took off.

At first they tried to grow across the ground, crossing over into an adjacent row of Okra but I lifted and hung those vines on the cages where they now seem content on growing. I used my spare tomato cages for support with the thought it protects the plants when their young from deer and the won't topple like a straight panel can. Right now the majority of the row is covered with vines, and from 30ft back it looks almost all yellow, like a Forsythia in full bloom but no sign of any pickles. The first blossoms are now over a month old, with every new parts having flowers every 4 or 6 inches and multiple blossoms in clusters.

Seeing that they haven't set fruit, even with the mass of bees they attract, (I put a small hive box about 50ft from the garden this year), and the tiny over populated blossoms made me second guess what the seeds could have been.

From the same source, I had Zucchini seeds that were two rows over and they never germinated, not a one, not in the flats, not in the ground, nor did two packs of seeds from Burpee that I bought, but several farmers told me they're squash failed too this year, there's been zero local squash, zucchini, or egg plant. Not sure what happened.

Pickles and cucumbers were always a plant and forget it crop here. They always grew well and needed very little additional fertilizer. They're in an adjacent row to the Okra which is slow growing this year but better than last when it wouldn't grow at all. Planted in mid April in the ground I got about 50% germination and the plants are now about a foot tall. They will have to really do some catching up soon if they're going to amount to anything. Its mid July already and in years past, I they're usually four to five foot tall and already producing.

For as warm as its been with plenty of rain, its odd that things are so far behind, especially considering everything got in the ground early this year too.

A soil test sent to the farm center said to do nothing or keep doing what ever I've been doing. I did fertilize heavier than usual early on but not so much at planting as usual.

Phosphorus: 44 ppm
Nitrates-Nitrogen 31 ppm
Calcium: 172 ppm
Magnesium: 61 ppm
Potassium: 213 ppm
pH: 6.60
Organic matter 7% (varied a bit across four samples between 6.8 and 7.2%)
Soluable salts: 1.0 dS/m

Their recommendation was to do nothing until fruit sets, then re-fertilize along each row lightly. We have a nearby crop testing facility here that will do soil testing and even come out and inspect if something looks way off or a new pest is found.

The one thing I've got a ton of this year is toads, something I've not had here in decades. They're everywhere this year despite a healthy population of red tail hawks, dozens of stray cats, and more snakes than usual as well. Mostly garter snakes and ring necks with the occasional black rat snake or milk snake.

 

[DiggersJo]

I gather we are talking cucumbers here (Pickle type) ? I've seen/had a similar situation (on a very small x2 plant scale) the last couple of years here and this year is odd. 2 plants, one in the front (lots of sun) and one in the back very little sun. Both grown from the same seed packet starting April indoors, same growing medium. The front is producing lots of flowers, but little fruit (x1 only), whereas the back 4-5 fruit already and many more on the way. I had this problem last year with a plant in the front and pinched out a few growing tips and it produced, but now thinking it could be just the heat? Front is surrounded by paving and gets lots of sun, always feels several degrees warmer and no doubt the paving stores heat. I've only just pinched out a few tips, so can't say if it will work again.

 

[Meadowlark]

A soil test sent to the farm center said to do nothing or keep doing what ever I've been doing. I did fertilize heavier than usual early on but not so much at planting as usual.

Phosphorus: 44 ppm
Nitrates-Nitrogen 31 ppm
Calcium: 172 ppm
Magnesium: 61 ppm
Potassium: 213 ppm
pH: 6.60
Organic matter 7% (varied a bit across four samples between 6.8 and 7.2%)
Soluable salts: 1.0 dS/m

That eliminates excess nitrogen as a cause....and in my book just about confirms high temps as the problem....and I share that problem here.

 

[EFGrows]