I saw that someone else had this problem, but I don't know the solution... I have very healthy plants with lots of blooms, but when I get a little cucumber, it turns yellow and falls off very quickly. Can someone tell me what is going on with them?

Cucumbers (and pumpkins and squash) are examples of plants that have separate male flowers and female flowers. In order for the plants to produce fruit, the female flowers have to be pollinated—the pollen from the male plant needs to contact a receptive female plant part. There are a few problems that will affect pollination and thus fruit production.

One problem is the lack of pollinators. Wind, rain and insects are the most common pollinators. The most important pollinators are honeybees. Recently, honeybee populations have been decreased by a combination of two deadly viruses that kill bees, and the overuse of chemical insecticides.

If insect populations are low and we have cloudy skies or heavy rains during the flowering period, pollination will be greatly reduced. In addition, periods of high heat and humidity during flowering will cause flowers to drop off or to not set fruit.

To ensure good pollination of your plants, you can remove a male flower and shake it over a female flower. The female flowers are the ones that have a swollen area at the base of the flower.

In addition, periods of high heat and humidity during flowering will cause flowers to drop off or to not set fruit. Adverse weather conditions will also prevent the fruit from maturing; the tiny fruits will yellow and drop before they get a chance to develop.

You can help to ensure that your plants pollinate well, whether the flowers are imperfect or perfect with a few cultural practices. Reduce the use of insecticides in your garden. Insecticides do kill those “bad” bugs that damage your plants, but they also kill the “good” bugs like bees that move from plant to plant pollinating as they go.

There are no panaceas though, no easy sprays that you can apply to the plants to ensure pollination.

I am having a similar problem in that I have numerous great looking cucumber plants. They ar ethe best looking plants I have ever grown. Each plant probably has about 20+ blooms and there are dozens of honey bees and bumble bees pollinating. However, I have only seen 2 cucumbers so far and one of them is deformed on one end.