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South Bloomfield, Ohio

I can't for the life of me understand why I never figured this out before this year.

This is the first year I've buried secondary vines and, no matter what your personal opinion may be, it is a real time-saver in the long run if you trim tertiaries(and who doesn't) or cut males from your vines. As I bury, I just cut the tendril and pinch off the tertiary bud and male blossom bud. No more secondary work after that.

7/6/2007 7:07:32 PM

Santa Cruz, CA

Do most growers trim off the male blossom on the secondary vine? I know about the the tendril and the tertiary but have never heard about trimming off the male blossom.

7/6/2007 7:24:09 PM

Minnesota([email protected])

I keep the males on until I'm sure I won't need any more. I have one plant that I didn't plan on using as a pollinator, so I pinched the males of as well. Much easier to bury, not having to worry about covering the males.

7/6/2007 8:11:24 PM

Ohio

Im doing the same thing as you Joe, the first 3 or 4 secondaries I will leave the flowers on and every secondary after that get the ax.

Brooks

7/6/2007 9:31:38 PM

Ohio

The flowers get the ax, not my secondaries that is,,LOL

7/6/2007 9:33:32 PM

southwest MO

Still keep an eye out down in the older parts of the plant... You will probably still get a few that run.

7/6/2007 9:58:40 PM

Rhode Island

we dont bother to cut any male flowers off the plant.
after a while very few grow anyways once the fruit sucks everything up

7/7/2007 5:03:56 AM

South Bloomfield, Ohio

That's exactly the way I did it Brooks. Used the first three or four secondaries for pollinator production. Eventually, they will run out of male blossoms.

I also noticed that burying the secondaries does not inhibit the production of males or tertiaries. I didn't bury vines on the 898 Knauss for fear of doing just that. Glad I didn't bother, too. The 898 was a bust this year.

7/7/2007 6:16:17 AM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

I bury parts of the secondaries just to get better rooting and to help them from getting ripped up if we get a strong wind. It also helps me train them to run where I want them to go.

7/7/2007 3:58:04 PM

maine USA

I am doing the same thing this year GPDude. It certainly should save a lot of time later. It is always so frustrating to try to get to some of the tertiaries. The ones that I miss always seem to be in a terrible place to get to. I would think that without these unneeded blossoms, tendrils, and tertiarys taking from the plant, the plant could send this energy to more desirable places, KathyT

7/9/2007 8:12:30 AM