Cucumber varieties

. I had that situation one year when my cucumber plants were having a bumper crop. I used to accost people walking by and “ demand” they took my excess. Even the postie fled any time he saw me advancing with cucumbers in hand!

 

Many years ago, I used to have gluts of cucumber, it reaches a point where you can't even give them away, and then some bright spark comes along about mid October and says,have you got any cucumbers?

 

I've had similar problems with over production in the past. At one point, I put a box of 6 or so in the local Church as it gets many visitors from far and wide. They disappeared within the week so that was good.
I only grow a couple of Beth alphas these days - still get enough to hand some round but more manageable

 

One of my babies has popped a flower out. Do I pinch this out to encourage further growth first?

 

I bought a cucumber plant from the garden centre last week which just said "female" as the variety. Do I need a male to cross polininate? I didn't see any for sale otherwise I would have bought one as well.

 

@Jungle Jane No male required, female cucumber flowers form cucumbers by themselves. The difference between all female varieties and varieties with male flowers is that you don't need to remove the male flowers.
If a female cucumber is fertilised the cucumber can have a bitter flavour.

 

Personally I would, the plant is still pretty small.