Parthenocarpic Cucumber Variety

[Marck]

Those immature seeds do look larger than what I would expect from a seedless cucumber, though possibly they would just remain at that stage of development.
You did mention that one of your plants produced male flowers. Did you try any hand-pollination with those? Even if you did not, perhaps a rare pollination event happened. This might suggest that pollination would be a more successful route than parthenocarpy, but one odd cucumber doesn't prove much either way.

Parthenocarpic cucumbers are F2 hybrids that must be especially cross-bred every year. Perhaps, some percentage of the F2 offspring do not completely inherit the parthenocarpy trait. I have read that some will still produce about 10% male flowers, though that may vary with cultivar. I have also read that the pollen will be sterile, but this doesn't seem to always be the case.

Your idea that you were sent the wrong seed may be the case. Next year try seed from a different supplier. Also grow more than two plants to the flowering stage if possible. Even if you have to cull some of them later, you may get a larger array of specimens to choose from.

 

[Chuck]

Parthenocarpic cucumbers produce a few seeds, not many, but a few, especially if the fruit is fully mature. If there were another non-parthenocarpic variety nearby and a pollinator visited your plant, your cucumber would have many seeds AND the fruit would have a good chance of being deformed. But, your fruit has few seeds and is perfect. This is why parthenocarpic seeds cost so much, there aren't that many seeds produced from each cucumber. IF, IF your seeds are in fact NOT parthenocarpic this would explain why 25 of your cucumbers aborted. Last year I grew Biet Alpha cucumbers, another parthenocarpic variety and my fruit looked slightly different than yours does. I grew mine out in the open and I saw very few pollinators around the plant. I googled Diva cucumber images and the pictures shown are not an exact copy of yours. Mine and the images on google show a slightly wrinkled fruit. Your picture doesn't.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

At least the one you got looks good, I can almost smell it

 

[Tommy89]

Parthenocarpic cucumbers produce a few seeds, not many, but a few, especially if the fruit is fully mature. If there were another non-parthenocarpic variety nearby and a pollinator visited your plant, your cucumber would have many seeds AND the fruit would have a good chance of being deformed. But, your fruit has few seeds and is perfect. This is why parthenocarpic seeds cost so much, there aren't that many seeds produced from each cucumber. IF, IF your seeds are in fact NOT parthenocarpic this would explain why 25 of your cucumbers aborted. Last year I grew Biet Alpha cucumbers, another parthenocarpic variety and my fruit looked slightly different than yours does. I grew mine out in the open and I saw very few pollinators around the plant. I googled Diva cucumber images and the pictures shown are not an exact copy of yours. Mine and the images on google show a slightly wrinkled fruit. Your picture doesn't.

I only had two parthenocarpic cucumber plants, however, one of the plants grew only male flowers for the first two months. This cucumber was harvested from the other plant (that only grew female flowers).

And based on what you and @Marck said, is it correct to say that the conclusion is that one of these is true, but we don't know which?:

I had a climate or nutrition problem due to which almost all the cucumbers aborted

or I received seed that wasn't parthenocarpic.

 

[Chuck]

I only had two parthenocarpic cucumber plants, however, one of the plants grew only male flowers for the first two months. This cucumber was harvested from the other plant (that only grew female flowers).

And based on what you and @Marck said, is it correct to say that the conclusion is that one of these is true, but we don't know which?:

I had a climate or nutrition problem due to which almost all the cucumbers aborted

or I received seed that wasn't parthenocarpic.

It is impossible to say which is true. I can only go by my own experience. On my Beit Alphas the first blooms were all male but soon changed to about 95% female. Most of the female flowers did not produce or set fruit. Total production of the plants were quite a bit less than on my monocious plants. Losing 25 embryos can only be either wrong seeds or weather/nutrition related. I suspect you were sent the wrong seeds but cannot say for sure. You can grow cucumbers year round where you are. Your plant is healthy. You are getting plenty of flowers and embryos, so either you were sent seeds which require pollinators or it is a nutrition problem. Your plant looks good so plenty of nitrogen. You are getting plenty of blooms so plenty of phosphorus. But the embryos do not grow which could be a lack of potassium. It could also be lack of pollination=wrong seeds. I would get more seeds from a different source and I would start using either liquid seaweed or liquid kelp regularly as they are both a great source of potassium.

 

[Tommy89]

It is impossible to say which is true. I can only go by my own experience. On my Beit Alphas the first blooms were all male but soon changed to about 95% female. Most of the female flowers did not produce or set fruit. Total production of the plants were quite a bit less than on my monocious plants. Losing 25 embryos can only be either wrong seeds or weather/nutrition related. I suspect you were sent the wrong seeds but cannot say for sure. You can grow cucumbers year round where you are. Your plant is healthy. You are getting plenty of flowers and embryos, so either you were sent seeds which require pollinators or it is a nutrition problem. Your plant looks good so plenty of nitrogen. You are getting plenty of blooms so plenty of phosphorus. But the embryos do not grow which could be a lack of potassium. It could also be lack of pollination=wrong seeds. I would get more seeds from a different source and I would start using either liquid seaweed or liquid kelp regularly as they are both a great source of potassium.

You said for Beit Alphas when you grew them: "Most of the female flowers did not produce or set fruit."
This is the same problem I am having.
What was the cause of your problem?

 

[Chuck]

If the plant set fruit on every flower the plant could not successfully grow that many fruits. Sort of like not thinning a peach tree. I also think, but don't know for sure, that parthenocarpic varieties just don't produce that much fruit. A normal monocious plant will produce 15-20 fruits. My Beit Alphas produced about half that. I grew 9 of the Beit Alphas. Big beautiful plants, but the amount of flowers was not even close to those of the Monocious cucs. This has nothing to do with the problem at hand but cucumbers have a producing lifespan of about 50-60 days so if your plants have been flowering for that length of time you may as well pull them up and replant.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Things are not always predictable, I grew four plants, one looked really strong and healthy, stayed small and did nothing, one got attacked by a huge slug that ate the stem down to the fibres. That one recovered, grew a big lump around the damaged place and was the best of all, the other two performed averagely.
Only two of us, but we like a lot of cucumber, not just salad, the missus makes a wicked curry and she will grate a whole one into yoghurt to go with it

 

[headfullofbees]

With parthenocarpic varieties, male flowers are only produced when the plant is badly stressed, & this would tie in with so many starting then aborting.
Diva cukes are usually 6-8 inches long, and I've picked up to eight of them from one plant at a time; the 14" long ones tend to restrict to to or three.
I start mine in March, & they finished about two weeks ago.
So, we need to find out what's stressed your plants, to avoid that next time, so I need your whole growing method, the weather, your feeding & watering regime, the lot.
Hopefully this will also answer the message you sent me.

 

[Chuck]

With parthenocarpic varieties, male flowers are only produced when the plant is badly stressed, & this would tie in with so many starting then aborting.
Diva cukes are usually 6-8 inches long, and I've picked up to eight of them from one plant at a time; the 14" long ones tend to restrict to to or three.
I start mine in March, & they finished about two weeks ago.
So, we need to find out what's stressed your plants, to avoid that next time, so I need your whole growing method, the weather, your feeding & watering regime, the lot.
Hopefully this will also answer the message you sent me.

About how high are the temperatures to stress a parthenocarpic variety. I have only grown them once last year and was disappointed at their production. My plants were beautiful but it was also in the high 80's-mid 90's. These temps did not bother my monocious varieties.

 

[Tommy89]

With parthenocarpic varieties, male flowers are only produced when the plant is badly stressed, & this would tie in with so many starting then aborting.
Diva cukes are usually 6-8 inches long, and I've picked up to eight of them from one plant at a time; the 14" long ones tend to restrict to to or three.
I start mine in March, & they finished about two weeks ago.
So, we need to find out what's stressed your plants, to avoid that next time, so I need your whole growing method, the weather, your feeding & watering regime, the lot.
Hopefully this will also answer the message you sent me.

Thanks for getting back to me. To sum it up:
Plant 1:
only female flowers, all but one aborted.
Plant 2:
for the first 1 month, only male flowers. After which now there are some female flowers, still aborting.

These were my only cucumber plants, both Diva. I believe I have the 6-8 inch long ones.

I had one container with a 16-inch diameter, and it was also about 16 inches deep. I sowed a couple of seeds in the container and thinned to two plants.

As it always in South Florida, the weather was hot with the high passing 90 F (32C) almost every day.

The seeds were sowed in late Ausust-early september.

Usually, heavy rain occurs in July to late August in my area. It generally pours for 0.5-1 hours a couple of times a week in those months. And it usually only rains very lightly and infrequently in September and afterward.

This year has been way different. From September 1st-21st, I can tell you that it has rained moderately/heavily for around half an hour to an hour a day for at least 18 days of those 21 days. This is in September, very rare. So, in short, we were having a ton of rain. The container got way too much water as you could expect. This may have contributed to so many cucumbers aborting.

During this time period, I of course never watered.

I had my first flowers (only female) on September 22nd for Plant 1.
Plant 2 grew's its first flowers (male) around October 3rd. Note that plant one is 10 days younger than plant two. By late October is grew it's first female flowers. I may have misspoken about the timeline of events before but everything in this message is correct.

The heavy rain stopped this year as the end of September came. Afterward, I generally watered so that the soil would be moist but not drenched.

These are pictures in which some cucumbers have aborted. The pictures are from October 10th, when it had been around 10-15 days since the heavy rain stopped.

I put fertilizer in the soil before sowing the seeds, close to 1.5 cups. On around September 25th, I put 1-1.5 cups again. By mid-October, I was going to put fertilize again. But none of the female flowers grew to full size, so I wondered if it is even worth putting fertilizer, would it go to waste, etc. since the female flowers were aborting. I regret it now, but I didn't fertilize then, and even after that. Looking back, it seems very foolish of me.

That was my growing method.

Thanks a ton.

 

[Marck]

it is good that you carefully observed your plants, this knowledge will help you going forward.
Are you planning to keep your plants over winter and see if they produce better come Spring, or are you going to start over with new plants, perhaps of a different cultivar?

 

[Larisa]

I would start growing a a different cultivar in the spring for an experiment.

The parthenocarpic varieties that I grow have a large number of feminine flowers. Almost every flower turns into a fruit, in turn. I plant 6-7 plants and I get several baskets of cucumbers. I choose varieties with a bouquet ovary of fruits and I do not need to cut off the side shoots. My biggest problem is finding people to whom I can give these cucumbers.
My conditions are spring sowing (May in my climate, sow in the first few days in a large plastic cup for better root development), abundant watering, high humidity and fertilization (watering 2 times with nettle infusion).

This is an F1 hybrid.

 

[Tommy89]

it is good that you carefully observed your plants, this knowledge will help you going forward.
Are you planning to keep your plants over winter and see if they produce better come Spring, or are you going to start over with new plants, perhaps of a different cultivar?

New plants around late January- February. As for cultivar, I'm thinking the same one, or maybe Beit Alpha, unless you have a specific suggestion of a different cultivar? I prefer slicing cucumbers.

 

[Tommy89]

I would start growing a a different cultivar in the spring for an experiment.

The parthenocarpic varieties that I grow have a large number of feminine flowers. Almost every flower turns into a fruit, in turn. I plant 6-7 plants and I get several baskets of cucumbers. I choose varieties with a bouquet ovary of fruits and I do not need to cut off the side shoots. My biggest problem is finding people to whom I can give these cucumbers.
My conditions are spring sowing (May in my climate, sow in the first few days in a large plastic cup for better root development), abundant watering, high humidity and fertilization (watering 2 times with nettle infusion).

This is an F1 hybrid.

Interesting. What are the names of your varieties?