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Midway City, California

LEN Thanks for writing that great article on Stem Stress.
This is the start of my third year. And I have alot of questions that the articles in bigpumpkins.com have answered.

My main questions is what is the Minimum Radius that a Main Vine (at the fruit ) can be curved too?

Another question.
When snipping off the Side Runners how far from the main vine do you go? Do you bury the the snipped side runners?

Another question.
Last year my first main vine came up facing South, I wanted it to face East so I started to curve it about 2 feet from the stump using about a 4 foot radius to get it pointed in the direction I wanted. The fruit grew to an estimated weight of 400 lbs and then stopped growing. Was there any possibilty that curving the vine could have restricted the flow of energy in too the fruit.

3/9/2001 5:38:12 PM

Rush, NY

Water, I have never measured the radius of the curves at the fruit. An estimate is most have a 7 or 8 inch radius. The morning I pollinate I move the vine to have about 1/2 of the curve as this is done early in the morning when vines are not as flexible as later in the day. The curve can be finished later in the day or within a couple days. Its best to finish it in the afternoon.
I remove the side runners right at the main vine. If a side runner that was left and channeled away from the fruits area interferes with the adjacent side runner, I terminate it as I try to keep a minimum of 2 feet between runners. It is covered with dirt out to where it is terminated.
It is very unlikely your 4 foot radius to change the direction of your main vine had anything to do with the fruits growth stopping at 400 pounds. Usually when fruit growth stops suddenly there is a major problem and the fruit collapses in 10 to 14 days. However, I remember a squash that abruptly stopped growing in late August that was a healthy 595 pounds in early October when picked.

3/10/2001 5:45:46 AM

Buffalo, Minnesota

My biggest of 350.lbs last year also stopped growing suddenly, i dont know what happned cause if it woulda kept growing at the rate it was it would had easily been 500.lbs, this thing was putting on 15 to 30 pounds some days, this pumpkin did have more than a little stem stress happening, but it was hard to prevent since its almost impossible to move a 350.lbs pumpkin by yourself, anyway thats my input.

3/11/2001 12:54:33 AM