The Effect of Delayed Pollination on Yield of Cucumbers Grown for Machine Harvests1

Preventing the pollination of cucumber flowers for periods up to 11 days after the appearance of the first pistillate flowers resulted in higher yields of greater dollar value, when compared to yields obtained by pollination of the first pistillate flowers. Following such a delay, an exposure period of 6 days to active honey bee pollination was sufficient for optimum single harvest yields. These results have particular application to the production of gynoecious F 1 hybrid cultivars for machine harvesting.