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canal winchester ohio

After reading some diaries of a few new growers I noticed a trend of worrying about ( and or) judging plants based on cot leaves. I'm begging you folks when I say don't sweat the small stuff. They're cot leaves, there will be hundreds more & within a month those leaves will probably be removed to clear out the crown area for air flow. Let'em go a while & get at least 7-8 leaves before culling plants out because a lot of times those slow starters will take 10-12 days before things kick in for'em.
Paul

5/5/2010 2:57:26 PM

Pocahontas, Arkansas

good post huff, i noticed that too! My dad looked at one of my plants with one bad looking cot and I told him it'd be alright- it wouldn't hurt a bit in the long run.

5/5/2010 4:02:24 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

GREAT post Paul!!!!!

5/5/2010 6:07:03 PM

Owensboro, Ky.

Nice, Paul...cot's are the feed leaves? Feeds the plant till the real one's start? I pinch em off once the vine starts to grow. Peace, Wayne

5/5/2010 11:12:18 PM

Fresno, CA

Leaving the whole cot issue aside (most of my plants have had true leaves for a while), I take it most growers select out the fastest growing plants to give space to. If you have a plant that comes from a seed you really wanted to try out but another backup plant is growing twice as fast, I'm guessing the consensus is to go with the faster growing one with limited space. Thoughts?

5/6/2010 12:16:38 AM

canal winchester ohio

Not always,a lot of great seeds ( plants) produce massive pumpkins from slow growing plants. That's where doing your genetic homework comes into play. If the seed has grown big ones before try to reach out to those growers & see how their plants were ( slow or fast growers). If it is a fairly new seed then study the mother seed & see it's growing patterns for help choosing. A lot of seeds produce huge plants but smaller pumpkins.
A lot of growers struggle with this choice, backups are there incase the seed you really want to grow fails completely. This is why I don't plant backups when I put my main ones out. I will start backups a week later so if one does fail I have one in the starting blocks but I'm not tempted by a quick starter changing my mind.

5/6/2010 10:22:03 AM

Fresno, CA

Thanks huffs

5/6/2010 3:24:25 PM