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West Bridgewater /Brockton Ma. USA

Has anyone ever cut the main vine to termate in a pumpkin ? This would leave about 10-12 feet and all the side runners in front of the set pumpkin .....Gutys move or fools choice ?
bill g.

7/8/2005 6:09:32 PM

Puyallup, WA

....sometimes it's a "no brainer"! I had a main vine "blow-out" break right after the first pollinated female. Ask me in October how it turned out.

7/8/2005 6:46:05 PM

Topsfield, Ma.

It's a good question Bill. Cutting the main right after the pumpkin makes it easier to eliminate vine stress, but some growers let the main run on after the fruit without any secondaries. No energy being wasted producing vines, and just maybe more energy being directed into the fruit???
Best of luck, Duff

7/8/2005 8:32:24 PM

milford, CT,

Bill, one of my plants snapped the main right after a pollinated female at 16 ft. I'm gonna let her grow as long as long as I can. I'll let you know how I make out with this. This is the first time I've tried this. Controlling stem stress sure will be easy!

7/8/2005 10:37:03 PM

Ohio

Jack LaRue terminates most of his mains right after the fruit set,Im going to try a couple this year like this.

7/9/2005 4:54:49 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

are you sure he does? I've heard and seen other things...

7/9/2005 8:52:40 AM

Montoursville, PA

I grew my 710 the first year with nothing beyond the fruit but a broken leader. On the back side I left the secondary give the only new growth available, to me after the accident. I lost it trying to get it to ground to fast. Snap, crackle and pop! It's a deadly sound one never forgets.. :))

7/9/2005 9:47:43 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

oh yes, I grew my PB of 658 lbs on the end of a main vine. The vine snapped about 4 ft past the fruit. At first I let the remaining vine on but later when stem stress occurred I figured that those 4 ft of vine would really make no difference and I just cut the vine off about 2 inches past the fruit... was very easy to grow then with no stress at all....

7/9/2005 1:29:52 PM

Ohio

Martin, pretty sure he does, he mentioned this on the cd that him and Al Eaton was at,the california siminar.

Brooks.

7/11/2005 4:52:26 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

lol... seems like it depends on how we interpret the CD!
I understood it like this: He lets the main vine grow naturally several ft. past the fruitset but removes all secondaries past the fruit. Some time later, when the vine is riped out and more flexible but before it touches the young fruit, he bends the vine away from the fruit in an almost 90° angle. From the picture that he drew it now looks like he terminated the main at the fruit and has a secondary going away from the fruit in each direction. In fact, I think, one is the main without further secondaries and the other one is the secondary that comes out of the main right where the fruit sits.
He trains the main and the secondaries around the fruit and only terminates the main and the secondaries before the fruit when they reach the edges of the patch.

7/11/2005 7:50:34 AM