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I don't think it matters much but I have a patch that is more exposed to the sun in the morning and is more shaded in the afternoon, my other patch wouldn't get sunlight till much later in the morning closer to lunch time 12:00 but have the whole afternoon till sunset. Which patch would be better for the Giants? (Reason for morning and afternoon sun is because the positioning of buildings and location of patches.) In the morning the sun would warm the plant up very quickly and the pumpkin and evaporate all the dew off of it. My afternoon patch would be very cold and wet in the morning but dry and very hot in the afternoon.

Also in the afternoon is when the sun is most intense with the heat and I found my P.M. patch would suffer I bit from heat stress and the leaves would wilt, but my A.M. patch never had a problem. So I am not sure whats better for growth, I can't really get a patch thats in the sun all day and thats probably not that good for it. Thanks for your help.

1/20/2005 2:46:11 PM

Key West, FL

I think morning sun is best. The patch I've grown in the past couple years gets sun from 12/1 to sunset. The plants seem to have a real problem going from shade to intense afternoon sun and always suffer from heat stress. I think the plants don't need a full day of sun to grow a big pumpkin though.

1/20/2005 8:20:13 PM

I would think the afternoon sun would be better for growth, but Ben made a good point. I'd grow in both and see what happens at the end of the year.

On the full sun thing... my patch can throw 600 pounds; it gets full sunlight for MAYBE half the day. The rest of the day it gets sun through trees.

1/20/2005 8:30:19 PM

Ljubljana, Slovenia

I think that morning sun may be better too. Besides the kyle`s reasoning the advantage of morning sun might be fast drying of leaves in the morning, which holds down the diseases.

1/21/2005 6:45:12 AM

Sweden

I think early morning sun is the best. At least if there is cold nights the sun will warm up the plant faster. In the evening the temperatur will not fall until the sun go down.
Lars

1/21/2005 8:11:34 AM

In the shade - PDX, OR

I'll take the afternoon patch.
The photoperiod is longer -in accordance with the sunset and your latitude.


The logic being that the plant has a longer time in the sun to create photosynthate = more juice to your pumper.

1/21/2005 1:05:42 PM

Key West, FL

I was talking to Jack LaRue about this years ago, and he thinks in a patch that gets full sun. By mid day, the plant has got all the sun it needs for a day, that's why they will sort of go limp a little. I've only had experience with afternoon sun though. My results weren't bad I guess. But my plants look like crap because they get burned so much. As soon as that sun hits them in the middle of the summer, they wilt, within 5 minutes, everytime.

1/21/2005 1:41:17 PM

Thanks for your help. I did have afternoon pumpkins last season and they did suffer a lot from heat stress on hot afternoon especially the humid ones before the P.M. T-Storms. Almost all of the leaves on all the plants would fall limp. My biggest was in the afternoon patch though but thats probably because it was my earliest plant and pumpkin started. This coming season Iam going to set up a good misting system to water and cool plants.

1/21/2005 2:07:18 PM

C N Y

well, if it is not TOO late to comment, i would have to say
that the morning sun patch would be my preference, not only because WHO wants to work on COLD pumpkin plants?, but
burning-off the morning moisture and dew would definitely
be a good thing to get outta the way early in the day.
don't pumpkin flowers open more readily when the sun is shining on them? i think so. think of it as a glider:
the sooner the plant is warmed-up and doing its thing, the
better able it will be to "coast" or "glide" for the rest of the day once the sun no longer hits it...just MHO...eric

1/25/2005 5:09:41 PM