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Pinedale, WY

One of my plants is growing two first true leafs. Has anyone seen this before? What do I do? They are growing opposite of eachother and perpedicular to the cots, if that makes sense. It will be Monday before I can get a picture up, but help now would be appreciated. Out of the 6 seeds I planted, it is my strongest plant and the first to poke up through the ground, 1,004 Holland.

5/12/2007 2:47:13 PM

Picton,ON ([email protected])

Your plant has a ribbon vine. Much like my 848 Mackenzie.Check out this pic:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=63066
These plants are usually very agressive but problematic. If you can femove one of the growing points(Not Both) you may have a chance. I will plan to plant this one and try to "fix it"

5/12/2007 3:14:34 PM

San Diego, Ca.

Pumpkin Pastor, at least your plant is giving you an early idea of what to expect from it. Double vines can be tough to grow. I had a 1016 Daletas last year that went double on me them finally turned into a ribbon vine. Just as Countrykid said, they are agressive plants and so was mine. I never was able to get a pumpkin to set on my plant. It turned into a big mess of a vine. I finally gave up and yanked it. You might want to consider starting another seed while its still early in the season. Keep an eye on the next leaf or leaves to develope, if they are doubles too I would go with something else. Vince

5/12/2007 11:23:40 PM

Long Island,New York

All you guys diagnosing major problems at this stage of the game are probably making a mistake. Sure, if you have to chose betwen two plants now then cull the mutant....but if you don't your doing yourself a disservice by culling so soon. Very often they grow out of their "first week abnormalities".

5/13/2007 9:36:11 AM

[email protected]

Pastor, you may still get more vines yet. I've had some just grow two and others grow many, like six, vines out of the stump. But I've never had one actually ribbon vine on me. My 1334 Daletas is going to do it this year, its a little behind the others and now I can see there are 3 true leaves coming up out of the center of the plant at once. I'd let them grow for a couple weeks then trim down to one vine. Just go with your instinct and pick the vine you think will be the best and train it as the main.

5/13/2007 2:05:55 PM

San Diego

I think vince has the right idea. Get other plants in the ground so you have options. Mutant plants can be a nightmare. Sure, occasioanlly they grow out of it, so let it grow for awhile. But have a back up plan now with some normal plants going.

5/13/2007 6:42:50 PM

Picton,ON ([email protected])

In addition to my earlier comments, I had two plants ribbon vine on me last year, one grew out of it, and grew our 800.5. The other I tried to "fix" the growing point, but was unsuccessful. I ended up training a secondary as a new main and we had a 679 lber on it.

I agree with G, many of these plants will grow out of there problems. If you have a better one to choose from then by all means plant it. But you don't have to throw the baby out with the bath water!

5/13/2007 9:03:44 PM

Pinedale, WY

Thanks people, I have 3 other plants going good, so I will plant it and see what happens. Do you suggest clipping one of the leafs off?

5/14/2007 2:23:25 AM

Picton,ON ([email protected])

There are differnet opinions on this. I would let it grow for a bit and see if it will grow out of it on its own. Then if not, try to remove one of the growing points.

5/14/2007 12:08:56 PM

Puyallup, WA

Jack LaRue's method for "taming a maverick plant" is keeping a constant drip of water at the base until it starts to grow correctly. This dilutes the nutrients and will slow down growth.

5/14/2007 2:16:40 PM