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Southern California

I have two pumpkins on the same vine at about 26 days old. One is at 15 feet on the main and weighs 300 lbs. and the second is at 7 feet on a secondary and weighs 280 lbs. I want to start to minimize the growth of the second so that the first on the main gets more nutrients. My thought is to make small cuts through the secondary until about half the "veins" of the vine are cut. Has anyone done this successfully without the pumpkin rotting?

7/26/2004 12:38:54 PM

ipswich, ma usa

Make small cuts (I do thirds) through the pumpkin stem. And by the third day the pumpkin will be reomved. If you want to remove your secondary do it after the pumpkin is removed. Why do you want to remove the secondary? Is it in the way of something? If not just remove the pumpkin.

John (5150)

7/26/2004 1:28:34 PM

Southern California

John: I auctioned off the promise of a 300 lb. pumpkin for a charity to be delivered this October. What I want to do is take the pumpkin on the secondary and use that as my auction pumpkin, but once it reaches 300lbs. I want to reduce the nutrients it gets so the one on the main vine really grows big. I cannot cut the secondary off altogether because it will rot...so I am thinking that if I make small cuts in the secondary it that will slow the growth and start hardening the pumpkin.
Craig

7/26/2004 1:39:03 PM

ipswich, ma usa

Technically that should work, but if it's already 280 pounds and it's just the end of July It will either get much larger than 300 or start to rot before October. Might be tough to get a pumpkin to just "sustain" itself for that long.

John (5150)

7/26/2004 2:50:27 PM

Walkerton Ont

i would of taken the side pumpkin off long time ago,

7/26/2004 4:20:28 PM

Minnesota([email protected])

Craig,
Do you think the secondary vine with the pumpkin on, has enough feeder roots at the nodes of that vine, to cut the vine near the main, and support the pumpkin?
Otherwise, the cutting half of the veins on the vine, seems like it could work, and may be safer. But I'm only a "rookie". Great question!!!
Doug

7/26/2004 6:30:34 PM

Ljubljana, Slovenia

I massacred the stem (two thirds) of a fruit on a secondary last year and it went down soon. So, be careful cutting the stem. I would cut trough slowly and progressively. Jernej

7/27/2004 3:58:46 AM

Southern California

Since I need both pumpkins (one for me and one for the auction winner) I unfortunately cannot cull the side pumpkin. I very much appreciate the comments about cutting the stem, which is why I think a few small incision in the secondary vine might be best. Also the secondary does have feeder roots, but not enough to live on it's own. I will make cuts totaling 25% this weekend and see what happens.

7/27/2004 11:55:47 AM

C N Y

YO!!! other pumpkin pal---HI!
hey, i HAVE grown pumpkins before on a vine that was completely severed, but bury the vine as much as possible
before actually removing or severing the vine from the main plant--give it a few days to root...--you can do it gradually, i'm thinking to cut through the secondary halfway between the main vine and the first leaf of the severed-to-be secondary, to allow that vine as many leaves as possible as well. been there done that----in fact, once i severed the vine from the main plant, THAT'S when the blossoms formed that became the two pumpkins that i set on that vine! they were real close together though, and one of them aborted. the other one got to be around 80 pounds,
payment to my cousin for lifting my 632.5 onto my trailer....g o o d l u c k !

7/27/2004 7:43:04 PM

Southern California

Well the secondary has no roots at any of its leaf junctions, so I mounded soil in those locations and will start watering there. With only one vine and two pumpkins this is a bit risky, but the vine will be under the knife for the first few incisions this weekend.

7/29/2004 1:30:17 PM