Increase in femaleness of three cucurbits by treatment with Ethrel, an ethylene releasing compound.

The application of Ethrel (2-chloroethane phosphonic acid), an ethylene-releasing compound, to monoecious cultivars of cucumber and squash and an andromonoecious cultivar of muskmelon, caused a shift towards femaleness in all three species. The increase in femaleness manifested itself in several symptoms: a decrease in the number of staminate (male) flowers, an increase in the number of pistillate (female) or hermaphrodite (perfect) flowers, and a change in flowering pattern, namely, formation of female flowers at lower nodes in cucumber and squash, and formation of hermaphrodite flowers on the main axis in muskmelon where normally only male flowers are formed in this cultivar.