Pollinating my cucumber and courgette plants

I'm growing several cucumber and courgette plants in my sunny attic room. I have noticed though that:
a) little cucumbers are growing followed by flowers - do I need to do some pollinating for them to develop further ? Are the flowers male or female ???
b) I have a few courgette flowers, but nothing resembling a courgette. Do I need to break into these flowers and do some pollination for them to fruit ???? Is the sex - ie male or female predetermined ???? If so why do I need to pollinate ????
This is my 1st year of growing these so would like some success !!!!!!
Any help greatly appreciated
Lissy

 

Hi Lissy

see here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growingmarrows.shtml

You can tell the female flowers as these will have a baby fruit behind them and the males are just on a stalk

Courgettes need pollinating by insects to develop fruit or tickle inside a male flower with a fine small paint brush and then tickle inside the female flower (talk about birds and bees ) I sometimes just pull off the male flower and stick it into the female flower

Cucumbers depending on type..outdoor ridge type need pollinating some greenhouse types taste bitter if pollinated and some F1 varieties are all female...do you know the variety names?

Lastly courgettes will cover a large area and both plants need plenty of light, I'm not sure how successful they would be in an attic but would like to know how they do