Telegraph Improved Cucumber Seeds

Owner Response: Thank you so much for making us aware of this issue. Our deepest apologies. A customer service agent will be with you shortly.

Owner Response: Hi Leslie, Thank you for sharing your experience. We are sorry you experienced poor germination with this seed. We do have our seeds tested frequently by a third-party laboratory to ensure germination levels exceed federal and our own standards. We pride ourselves on quality and guarantee our seeds. It appears you had a hard time with a few varieties. A customer service agent will contact you shortly to troubleshoot and see how we can help.

Owner Response: Hello, Thanks for the review. Male or pollen-bearing flowers are usually the first to appear on plants presumably to attract pollinators to the area. Fruit-bearing flowers will follow unless there is intense heat which can cause a dominance of pollen-bearing flowers. If you have questions we are always here to help. Feel free to submit questions to customer service or our horticulturists via the "contact us" link at the bottom of any page on our website. Happy gardening!

Owner Response: Hi Debra, Cucumbers do need a little help at first finding a trellis and an occasional redirect to the trellis. This is usually a fun, easy task. This cucumber doesn't have the bitter gene that makes cucumbers sometimes bitter so this could be nutrient or water issue. The curling and misshapen fruit you described is a sign of incomplete pollination. It takes about four visits from bees to get one flower to be pollinated well. This has become a very common problem as our pollinator populations struggle. Native bees, in particular, are much more thorough than European honey bees at this task. You can try sowing some bee-loving flowers by the cucumbers, like borage or you can hand pollinate. We have an article and video about hand pollination in the "learn more" tab on this page or you can search "hand pollination" in the search bar to find it. We hope you find these tips helpful. Happy gardening!

Owner Response: Hi Rita, Thank you for sharing your experience. It is normal for the first couple of weeks of flowers to be pollen producing and not fruit producing. It is also increasingly common that gardeners need to hand pollinate flowers because of an absence of native bees (European honey bees aren't very thorough and it takes 4 visits to a flower to pollinate). High heat can also cause an abundance of male flowers, but rest assured that there isn't anything about the seed that would cause this issue.