Dakota Gardener: The birds and the bees and the cucumbers
Cucumber plants produce separate female flowers (left) and male flowers (right). NDSU photo
Cucumbers are one of my favorite garden vegetables. I love picking them when they are 5-6 inches long and eating them plain or with a basic veggie dip (my favorite is published in the North Dakota State University Extension publication “Field to Fork: Cucumbers!”). But what do you do when your favorite garden vegetable starts dropping flowers?
To answer this question, let’s have a little biology re…