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Napa,Ca.

1. I should be burying my vine?
2. When, if at all, do I clip the end of the vine to stop it's growth? My main vine is 10 feet or so now.
3. I've been cutting of the side shoot vines off the main vine. Is this correct?
4. How many fruits should I let develop before picking one and how big should they be?
5. How do I tell a male flower from a female? Males have no fruit at the base? Should I cut off the males right away?

6/8/2001 1:06:08 PM

PA

First of all, there are no stupid questions here. I believe most growers bury vines for some very good reasons. It promotes root growth into the ground and it also helps anchor the vines to the ground so the wind doesn't rip them up. As far as when to terminate growth of the main vine, that depends on many things, I plan on terminating the main if the fruit seems to be slow growing or when it reaches the end of the patch. Don't cut the second set of vines off the main, you will have another set of vines trying to grow off the secondaries, cut this third set off as they form. Don't worry about the ones you've already cut, you may however want to let some of the set that I just told you to cut off, grow, to sort of make up for them.
Try to pollinate as many as possible and mark them with labels or little flags with the male flower you pollinated it with(trust me this is a good idea) I didn't mark well enough last year and I ended up with open pollinated fruit, not a disaster but you won't know the pollinator of the offspring. Let them get at least soccer ball size, maybe even a little bigger before cutting any off. Base your decisions on how fast they are growing, and how the stem angle looks, should be as close to perpendicular to the vine as possible How many per plant is up to you and your plant. If you have a very aggressive growing plant you may be able to let 2 or 3, if the plant is a little slower only 1. Once you see how a few different plants grow you'll know what I mean. I'm going with 1 per plant this year because I have 8 plants and have insurance this way.You are right the females have the little pumpkin at the base. You don't have to cut the males off right away but after you have fruit growing you can clip off extra blossoms, bugs love to hide in them to avoid spraying. check out some of the articles on this website, tons of info here, and check out the growers diaries too. Good luck this year and have fun!!!

6/8/2001 4:37:16 PM

Long Island,New York

One more reason to burry the vines is to minimize the access to the vine by the Vine Borer Moth. You are fortunate enough not to have this problem, but I figured i'd mention it for everyone else. Lose a few leaves and leaf stalks to them= no problem. Get a borer in the main= your done.............G

6/8/2001 5:17:05 PM

Western Pa.

Was going to mention the SVB, but it seems like Glenn beat me to it. My wife one asked, "Can I ask a stupid question?", and I replied, "Better than anyone else I know!"

Grow 'um SILLY!

kilr

6/8/2001 8:20:28 PM

western Kentucky

Hey Orange,

I saw the pics that you put into the gallery. I was really interested in the shading aspect. I am needing to find a way to cool off my pumpkins. This year I was plannning on shading but I read the pumpkins really enjoyed the sun, so decided That I would go with misting. I haven't ordered my system yet so I am still open to change my mind. If I could grow a 500+ pumpkin using shading I would be tickled to death, especially if the cost of shading is less than $130 (the cost of misting). Would you be kind enough to tell me how the shading was set up, what materials were used, when it was set up, what the temps were like in the hottest part of the summer, and most importantly the cost.

Thanks Justin

6/9/2001 12:47:19 AM

Connecticut, USA

Check out the article on misting in the How-To section. I believe it would be cheaper than $130.

6/9/2001 7:38:36 AM

western Kentucky

No, Scott spent over $175 on his including the stakes. The timer is the most expensive part, costing about $50. The rest is not that bad, or at least not until you go to adding it up. Oh yeah and $14 for the shipping and handling.

Justin

6/9/2001 12:13:20 PM

Long Island,New York

I think he won 1000 dollars with the pumpkin he misted though.........

6/9/2001 2:13:39 PM

Greencastle, PA

Kilr,
You crack me up! "beter than anyone else I know," you're so mean!

6/9/2001 2:29:47 PM

western Kentucky

Glen,
Good point... But I am broke!!! I need to find the least expensive way to keep'em cool.

6/9/2001 4:00:06 PM

Long Island,New York

I believe this "orange thumb" is a different "orange thumb" than the one with the shaded garden.......G

6/9/2001 6:05:25 PM

western Kentucky

LIpumpkin,
Ok thanks.
I have been looking in to shading a lot the last two days. I know that a pumpkin would benefit from being in full sun, but I think that keeping the pumpkin cool and reducing the heat stress would be more beneficial. I know that I could probally do both with misting but I would need about 12 start times. This would require two of the timers and cost an extra 50 bucks, bringing the total to about $180. I figured it up and it would take about 12 start times to cover the entire period that the pumpkin would be suffering from heat stess in July and August.

Do you have anything to say to help me with my decision. What is your opinion?

Thanks Justin

6/9/2001 10:25:35 PM

Greencastle, PA

I like my climate, it's warm enough to keep things growing nicely, but cool enough that I shouldn't need a mister or a shadeing device. One thing about the misters, Bob, they get the leaves wet, which promotes disiese. Misters are fine as long as you check the plants everyday, keep this in mind if you have a tight schedule.
Tom

6/9/2001 10:50:37 PM

Commack, NY

but to be perfectly honest, i only used my misters till the end of june!! after that it was cloudy and rainy most of the rest of the summer.

scott

6/10/2001 10:27:46 AM

Commack, NY

oh, one more thing, justin, that timer that i have cost 115 bucks i think, and i use 9 start times. it has an "open window" "closed window" function..........meaning, if you open the window at 9 am, and tell the timer to run for 30 seconds every 2 minutes until 5 pm, it WILL do it. very flexible piece. tough to program, but very flexible. incidentally, if anyone has actually purchased it, and is having problems getting it to work, emsil me.

scott

6/10/2001 10:30:20 AM

western Kentucky

I would have to use it almost every day throughout the summer. We usually have a wet spring followed by a hot dry summer, and it stays hot up to the end of August. Some times it is hotter in August than it is in July.
The timer that you have would it run for 30 sec. every 30 min. from 8AM-5PM. That is the time that my plant last year showed the signs of heat stress.

Thanks for all your help Justin.

P.S. What is the name of your timer and where could I find it.

6/10/2001 11:35:28 AM

Commack, NY

it will most definatly run for 30sec, every half hour from 8-5. ........DIG Greenhouse Timer, purchased at dripworks. read the misting article, all the info is in there.

scott

6/10/2001 12:26:00 PM

western Kentucky

thanks

6/10/2001 2:19:34 PM

Connecticut, USA

Melnor makes a 6 cycle time that has a misting option on it. Mine was about $40 at Home Depot.

By the way, when I mentioned my assumptions on price, I forgot about the timer (I already had one).

John

6/10/2001 8:45:32 PM

Sloughhouse, CA

Scott, Do you know any more about the specs. on the DIG timer than what is in the catalogue? My husband is an elec. engineer and has a thousand questions before he buys something or I get to by something elec. I guess that is the difference between a teacher and engineer. I would have bought it by now. Suzy in Sloughhouse.

6/11/2001 1:38:52 AM

Commack, NY

Suzy.....i'm definatly not an expert on it, although i have tinkered some. is there anyting specific you wanted to know?

scott

6/11/2001 9:37:34 PM

Deer Park WA

I use a simple light timer wired in series with a remote bulb thermostat. The timer is set to close between 1200 hrs. and open at 1700 hrs. the thermostat is set at 90 deg. with a 5 degree differential. I mount the thermostat sensor directly below a misting nozzel. the system then only comes on when greenhouse temps, rise above 90 deg. and shuts off after about 90 seconds. It works great only wish I had some more 90 deg. temps!!!

6/12/2001 10:51:59 PM

western Kentucky

Oh man don't wish that. Just be glad that it doesn't get as hot up there as it does down here. The heat index today and yesterday was already 100F.

Justin

P.S. Not last year but the year before we had aheat index of 120 for a few days. It did not get that bad last year It stayed between 105-115 for the most of the summer. It is way to humid here.

6/13/2001 12:06:24 AM