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Little-TON - Colorado

I am asking for some opinions here and experience would be even better if available, but I appreciate your opinions.

My patch size for the wizardNator patch is only 22' wide against the side of my house. So to compensate and allow me to grow a XMAS pattern with 12-14 sides, I offset the plant. Half the plants sides vines grow 14' and get buried, the other side of my Xmas tree gets 5 feet of dirt before it grows the other 9 feet verticle. Of course the verticle vines dont get to root into the dirt, but grow and even set pumpkins....

Do you beleive the verticle vines to be a plus or a minus in helping my final weight of the pumpkin. My concern is the side vines without roots may be using nutrients and water to sustain them instead of contributing to the pumpkin......Your thoughts.........

Perhaps I should be using a flag pattern instead.....My lightest pumpkin this year came out of that patch even though it was in the best dirt, was my best potential seed, and had the best sun and water......and got my best attention.... Plant looked great. I know Ill need a few more growing years to perhaps test it out.....

Let me know your thoughts....I appreciate it.
Thanks

10/19/2007 2:48:05 PM

Georgia

Id honestly say the verical vines really arent doing much for ya exept taking away from growth. I would just go flag pattern and bury the heck out of the vines. Thats just what I would do though.

10/19/2007 2:51:45 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Wiz, why not just have 11' secondaries on each side? Alot of growers go with between 10-15' so 11 should be OK.

10/19/2007 4:42:43 PM

Rhode Island

agree with jason and north shore gary

just grow smaller side vines and you will do fine

pap

10/19/2007 7:27:22 PM

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

I tried growing vertical this year because I noticed that my pumpkins would grow up my sunflowers. Have a look at this post: http://bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=66949. You can see them in the back of the patch. Some vines went up, but getting them up there on purpose (and consistently) is much more difficult. They just ended up making spraying much more difficult.

I think normal xmas with 11' would be fine too. If you figure 15' to pumpkin and 10' after on main, thats 25'x22' per plant which works out to 550 square feet, which is perfect for a world record.

10/20/2007 10:35:05 AM

Colo Springs CO

Gary;
Those climbers are pulling a lotta juice away... you probably noticed larger white root nodes on those climbers (prime for cuttings...lol). Its probably not a bad idea to bury the vines up to the wall and let them start climbing to develop more massive roots by the wall, then once they really get climbing, cut off the vine to the last rooted vine area. I've noticed most dead head vines don't root much at the last 3 or 4 leaves if the tip is pruned before that vine is buried. Those last leaves get huge, but as far as roots goes, I'm always amazed that the roots there taper off in size. The goal is to get as many good size roots as possible, especially the closer you get to the fruit. Other than that, the healthier the leaves are during fruit growth, the more energy the plant can produce for the fruit.

10/20/2007 2:29:24 PM

Minnesota([email protected])

Interesting observation Marc....about deadheaded vines an root growth. I'll keep that in mind for next year. Thanks.

10/20/2007 2:49:49 PM

Little-TON - Colorado

Ill be giving it a try this year Marc, The Leafs were Bigger on the Wall and provided almost 140 sq feet of more leaves.....but with no roots.

10/21/2007 12:32:47 PM