From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Clarence, NY

It's getting close to the time to begin pollinating. Should I stick to the females on the main or should I pollinate the secondary females too?

6/16/2007 5:06:37 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Pollinate everything that is far enough out and has good vine position. I usually pollinate 4-6 fruit and then pick the fastest growing (usually of course on the main) but have kept a "back up" or shock absorber on a secondary just in case of emergency.

Last year when the main fruit on my 1016 Daletas blew up, I was very pleased to still have one on a good secondary that continued to grow.

Your call but if you are a fairly new grower and only have 1 plant, I would pollinate many and keep one on the main and one on a good secondary.

6/16/2007 8:50:03 PM

Santa Cruz, CA

I would stick to females on the main vine and pollinate all of them that appear. We had three females pollinated on our main vine last year. The first one aborted when it was small basketball size but the second female took. After the second female was bigger than a basketball, we pruned the third female off.

In this business of growing giant pumpkins you can get cracks and problems at any time along the way...it's just a given that you need to learn to roll with them. If you have room, it's a good idea to plant as many pumpkin plants that you have time to tend that way, if you loose one, it's not as big a deal.

6/17/2007 8:54:27 PM