From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

So when you train the vine to do the S-Curve so that the pumpkin is on the outside of a curve rather than moving the pumpkin, what do you do with the rest of the vines? If I was to turn the vine that dramatically, it would cross another vine.

Also, I don't think there is room for a 4x4 pumpkin in amongst the vines. Do you just train and/or cut back secondarys until there IS room?

As a second point, I have a double vine with a real nice pumpkin on it at a good location. Just prior to the pumpkin another secondary has come out and is running well. I was thinking of cutting off the vine after the pumpkin and letting the secondary run. as the remaining "main." Is it better to cut now or ...

How big is a quick growing pumpkin at day 10 or day XX? Do you do OTT at that point? I have read several few posts saying they are wanting a 20 or whatever at day 10 but not sure and don't have the experience yet. Very difficult time for us Newbies since we only have a few pumpkins set now, and we are supposed to cull "soon" so as to push the other growth if this is not the "one." I don't have any good ones on the main yet (except the double vine), just secondaries but am trying to get ahead of the question curve.

Lastly, anyone having trouble with LaRue seeds from Howard Dill? Me and a neighbor, both with different LaRue seed stock, have very slow poorly growing plants. My Sherwood is on fire and so are his others. Also, I was donated some seed from some great people here on the board and they are outpacing the LaRue alread. Any ideas? Can a specific growers seeds be region specific?

Thanks for listening!

7/4/2006 6:28:27 PM

Ennismore, Ontario

I have a LaRue 1017 and the vine is growing like crazy about 16 feet, with lots of male flowers, but no females yet. Is there something i should be adding to the soil to get the females coming on the vine.

7/4/2006 8:03:25 PM

Farmville, Virginia (mfowler@hsc.edu)

I bought two Papez 992 seeds from Dill and both were terrible runts compared to the two donated seeds I planted. Ended up culling both Papez. At the time of Culling they were les than half the size of the other two.

7/4/2006 9:46:58 PM

Ca

Landry/Ailts Benchmarks for 1000+ Pumpkin

Day 10-- 25"

Day 20-- 68.5"
         
Day 30--108"
              
Day 40--134.5"

These are the average circumference measurements.

7/4/2006 10:03:18 PM

Midwest

petman:

Train the vine away from the pumpkin side and train the secondary with it. If it crosses, remove the leaves from the secondary where it crosses and make it neat. You will need to have full access to the stem and vine as it grows. So, make sure you have boards in places that allow you full access to the main and stem(s). Some growers move all secondaries apart to fit in the pumpkin, especially on the side of the stem since it is where you monitor the main, put up shelter and take measurements. Give yourself and the pumpkin lots of breathing room! Regarding your second question about terminating the main and letting the secondary before the pumpkin grow... let the main grow and terminate the secondaries before the pumpkin. That's my opinion, others may disagree. but, if you let a secondary continue to grow before the pumpkin, chances are that it will siphon off energy from the basal crown, etc... I would take into consideration how long the secondary it now and how long you would like it to be before terminating it. If you have all the space in the world, you might want to pick a desired length and terminate it there. personally, I think 12-15ft is a decent length for a secondary, especially if I have fruit on the main. But, if there is no fruit on the main, then I can see more reason to grow a secondary long until a female can be pollinated on it. Last year I grew all my pumpkins on secondaries. I made the mistake of letting too many secondaries grow while I had three of four pumpkins going. This was in August. So, this year, I'm not letting them grow un-controlled. They'll get terminated at the end of the patch at a specific length.
Best wishes!

7/5/2006 2:04:28 PM