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San Diego

My 950 boyton developed a vine tear or split that runs parallel with the vine. It is on the main vine about 5 to 6 inches from the stump. The first main secondary that came off of the main, seemed to have caused the tear and pulled the main vine apart with the tear as the secondary was off the ground awhile. Never had this happen before. The secondary is down on the ground now and 7 feet long, so the stress from it is gone. I put in sulfer paste in the tear and covered the tear with a small plastic canopy like tent 3 inches above the vine to keep it dry from my over head watering.

It's been a week now, the tear is dry and healed, but seems to still be growing in width and length slowly as the plant grows. This concerns me a little, the tear was about a 1/4 inch wide, maybe 1.5 inches long, now it's probably 1/2 inch wide, 2.5 inches long, maybe 3. What else should I be doing to protect this area? Wrap anything around it? Will this affect my pumpkin growth at all? I'm gonna keep sulfer pasting it every week or so. An advice is welcome. Besides the split, plant is growing fast and healthy. Jimmy

6/4/2005 3:24:04 PM

Long Island,New York

That split will continue to grow in size and roughen up/scar along all the split edges but won't likely be a problem. By the end of the year they usually look like a banana skin after removal of the banana fruit when the endsof the banana arent peeled open (picture pulling a banana from its skin from the middle). Im not sure I'd want a puddle of water held in the opened vine everytime it rains or too inviting an area for fungus/bugs etc so if it were me I'd not burry it but would protect it from rain (while allowing air to it...kinda like making a table over top.) ....G

6/4/2005 3:40:01 PM