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Canada

Ok heres the problem i'm now faceing. Were my fruit is located on my plant is right were the main vine takes a turn and heads south, Ok Ive currently cut 4 tap roots to allow the main to raise with the fruit growth, when i arrived back from holidays the fruit had grown so large that the main vine was actually under the fruit, Monday I was able to move the fruit 1/4" of an inch to move the main from under the fruit, i placed 4 pieces of styrofoam
between the fruit and the main to keep them seperated, well my fruit has grown so much overnight that now the force between the main vine and the fruit and styrofoam is so strong i'm afraid its going to snap the main vine,

Ok so ive got 2 options here,

1. Ive got 22 feet of vine growth in front of the fruit ( from stump out to were fruit is pollinated) and I could cut the main off about 3 feet behind the fruit so to allow the fruit to grow without snapping the vine.

2. cutting all the tap roots at every single node from fruit out to tip of main ( approx 20 ft of growth) to allow the main to move freely upward motion and outward
as the fruit grows

3. ive now got about 1/4" before the fruit will once again be over the fruit my last option and not best is just to remove the styrofoam and let her grow over the vine.

i'm kinda leaning towards cutting each root at each node to as i really dont want to get rid of the main in front of the fruit as all the leafs are still nice and healthly unfortunally the leaves from the stump out about 12 feet are slowly starting to show there age. thats why i really dont want to cut the main off, but yya my fruit is averaging about 2/14- 4.5" of growth each night now so ive gotta act on this one soon

thanks

Dave

8/16/2005 8:50:26 PM

Mastic Beach, New York

i always cut the main after the fruit,i leave about 1" and put a fan on it ..no stem stress

8/16/2005 9:25:11 PM

Canada

Pictures are up in my diary now.


Dave

8/16/2005 9:54:45 PM

Ontario, Canada.

Dave, How much plant (sq.ft.) do you have in front of your plant. I don't believe severing all of the tap roots is a good thing. you will transform that whole part of the vine in becoming a sucker and slowing down the growth of the fruit. Just a few roots should give it enough room to flex a bit more combined with a gentle rotate each day.

8/17/2005 1:13:24 AM

Canada

Russ, The fruit is out about 22 ft from the stump of the plant and there is only about 4 sets of secondarys right before the fruit, so not much of SQ.F leafage there. when I got attacked by vine borers I ended up takeing allot of the secondarys out from around the stump area as they were all badly effected by borers The growth past the fruit is really good with a few secondarys still growing strong, i still havent cut the main yet but it has slowed growth big time since the fruit hit day 10, The issue i have with moveing the fruit is the stem is about as thick as a beer bottle and she doesnt want to move at tall. The stem on this fruit is just like Roy Lee's pumpkins on the flag pole site. This afternoon i'll cut 2 more tap roots at each node on each side of the fruit and see if that helps any, Monday when i placed the styfroam between the stem and the fruit it was looking good but after a night of awsome growth it was bendind the styrofoam pretty good and it was jammed in there tight so i removed it as i didnt want the main to crack or snap. once the sun has been on the fruit for a few hours and things loosen up a tad i'll see if i can get the fruit to move at least another 1/4" out to give me a good 1" of more growth area.

thanks
Dave

8/17/2005 9:42:25 AM

Canada

OK So now i'm haveing some majour issues, its been warmer
then usuall the past 2 nights, and we have recieved ALLOT of rain these past 2 days, Thursday night my fruit put on 4.5" and Friday night it recieved its biggest gain of 6 1/4 inches Ive got 22 ft of main vine in front of the fruit and about 30 feet behind the fruit, Ive cut almost every tap root at each node minus the last 10 nodes at the end of the main vine and secondarys, Ive moved the fruit as far away as i can possibly and the vine past the fruit is getting really tight as the pumpkin is now in contact with the main vine and pulling on it.

If i cut all the last few tap roots on the main past the fruit this will allow me to move the vine away from the fruit a good 1" per day to allow room for the pumpkin to grow.

Or just say screw it and cut the main a good 5 ft past the fruit?

what actually supplys growth to the fruit? the more leafs the better I hear from some people thats why id rather not cut the main past the fruit, others tell me they cut the main after the fruit, Id probably be better to cut all the last few tap roots past the fruit keeping the good main with healthy leafs and allowing the main to be more workable with wooden stakes to keep the contact bewteen the fruit and vine.


any suggestions?

thanks
Dave

8/20/2005 10:51:32 PM