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Vancouver, White Rock, Canada

A quick prunage type question... I know to prune off tertiary growth on my secondaries, but don't know why I do this? The reason I'm curious, besides that's just the way I am, is beacuse I have 2 secondaries that are before my fruit, which were terminated at about 8' for space reasons. These have begun to attempt to continue growing via tertiary vines, and I could really use some more leafage before my fruit. What's the theory here?

8/2/2004 1:48:23 PM

Eveleth MN

From what I Understand its kind of a "give/take" situation. Your plant is deverting "juice" to grow the tertiary vines that could be used to "juice up" you pumpkin more. On the other hand it the extra leaves it creates could help produce more "juice". I think its a happy balance you need to find and most experiance growers seem to cut all tertiaries of so thats what I'm doing also. I wasn't in my patch for about 5 days due to working alot of 16 hours shifts one week and when I got into the patch I could barely move around due to the tertaries going every which way ( BIG MESS ) it took me over 2 hours to trim all of them off my 4 plants to clean up the growing area.

8/2/2004 1:58:08 PM

In the shade - PDX, OR

The Rancher is correct. This technique is used to control the growth of the plant. It diverts the growing energy of the plant to specific areas where YOU want it to go.

You can always go jungle style and not prune these off. You'll end up with a mess and a tangle of vines and leaves. (insert your favorite explicitive here)


If you have the open space I'd maximize it and let a few terts grow - especially if they are before the fruit (I use this technique when open space exists)

8/2/2004 7:06:23 PM

Indiana

I let a couple grow to replace old leaves close to the stump or crown or whatever it is.
Steve

8/2/2004 7:14:16 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

If more space has opened up (or your wife says its OK) then by all means grow a few more leaves before the fruit on those vines that want to. If the space reasons were that there is just no more room along the fence or pathway or wherever, don't let the vines cross over eachother or go "jungle style"

Looks good so far and you are well on your way to a big one. See you at the weigh-in!!

Glenn

8/2/2004 7:57:08 PM

[email protected]

I'm all with cutting back on extraneous growth that might take away from the fruit.

But like Steve, I've taken to retraining a couple of strategically located tertiary vines to replace the oldest least productive leathery excuses of old worn out leaves. I've seen nothing here or elsewhere to suggest this is good or bad. But it does stand up to reason.

It also helps ease the strain on a growers pysche to see young green healthy leave around the crown. For whatever that's worth.

8/2/2004 8:59:37 PM

Vancouver, White Rock, Canada

As for why I have new room, it's a long story, let's just say it involves a 8" thick cement walkway, a jackhammer, 3 pick-ups full of cement pieces and lots of grass seed. I've been pruning the terts off, but they keep coming back, so I think next time, I'll let 1 or 2 go. Aphids annihilated a few of my biggest leaves near the stem, and my pumpkin is only about 7' out, so I need all the green I can get.

8/3/2004 12:48:25 AM

Vancouver, White Rock, Canada

Tertiary growth is an interesting phenomena, because no-one can say for sure what resources, if any, tertiray growth contributes to or takes away from the pumpkins. I was doing some reading on Hnery Holman's page (http://henryholman.homestead.com/pumpkins.html) and in the pruing section, there's an article by Jon Hunt, which says:

"He asked me how I pruned the plants and after explaining my technique he told me U. C. Davis has done extensive research on wine grapes and found that the canes coming off of the vines became predatory after about the 14 leaf on each individual cane and didn't put any energy back to the bunch of grapes on that specific cane."

Has anyone ever done this with pumpkin plants and secondary vines?

8/3/2004 7:52:31 PM

[email protected]

The problem with AG's is just as you have dicovered. Most of our decision making is based on the experiences gained by other cash valuable crops. Atlantic Giants just don't sell well enough to attract the big money needed to fuel good research.

The only real money in pumpkins is from the small field type Halloween carver & pie filling markets. These are driven by tons per acre in total production & return on invested dollars. In these cases, the weight gains attained by vine pruning/training, are not justified once the labor is factored into the equation. The weight gains are real. The financial gains are not.

8/3/2004 10:59:41 PM

Vancouver, White Rock, Canada

I've also seen in some of the research of other cash crops that emphasis is on growing more fruit, not necessarily larger ones. My observations so far tend to lead me to believe that plant size may not be as important as we think, as just as many 1000#r's seem to have been grown on 400 sq ft plants as have been grown on 1000 sq ft plants. Maybe anything over 500 sq ft begins to take away from the fruit? Maybe the number is 600 sq ft? 700? Uggh.

8/4/2004 3:50:00 AM