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Sacramento, CA

I keep seeing that folks are "Terminating" secondaries. Is this usually by cutting them? do folks bury the developing tip? What is the best way?

My situation is I have a plant along the edge of my patch and I want to keep it from growing out of the fence. So I want to terminate the secondaries at the edge of the patch.

Thanks!

7/10/2006 11:54:38 AM

Salmon Arm, BC

Hi Matt...remember I'm a newbie. I always use an exacto knife and burn the blade before cutting everytime. I cut flat across to minimize exposed surface area. Then I just let the ends dry for a couple of days and bury them. For something interesting to do try this. Take the cut vine afterwards...sit down with a nice cup of coffee and make a cut wherever a join is. You'll see that the tube ends so don't really have to worry about any nasties crawling right through your entire plant! Also...the kids LOVE to take the culled females and carve faces in them. Stick a wire through the bottom and put them in a flower arrangement also..Kinda neat..Hee hee fun with pumpkins! Good Luck! Deb :)

7/10/2006 12:37:01 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

I just pinch the tip off...wait a day..then finish burying the vine.

7/10/2006 1:02:37 PM

Western NY

reach into the growing tip and pinch it off at the smallest part you can find. vine will finish growing out a few more feet, but those last few leaves at the end get huge when you do it that way. plus, it's very little damage to the plant compared to cutting through a full sized vine.

7/10/2006 2:29:14 PM

Sacramento, CA

So dont just bury the leaves??

7/10/2006 11:41:47 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Andy is suggesting you just pinch the very tip & leave it alone.

You never bury the leaves.

7/10/2006 11:51:13 PM

Salmon Arm, BC

wow..cool..thanks for asking Matt. Thanks for the info Andy!

7/11/2006 12:20:11 AM

Salmon Arm, BC

Thanks Tremor!

7/11/2006 12:21:32 AM

Sacramento, CA

Why never bury the leaves? Not saying that I did and then had to go back out this morning, dig them up and snip them off... but lets just say someone burried a leaf- what happens?

7/11/2006 12:10:19 PM

Midwest

The leaf is attacked by soil microbes and starts to break down still connected to your vine. Probably doesn't make a huge impact but adds some risk that is better avoided.

7/11/2006 2:14:18 PM