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Cochecton, NY

Well, that stunk!!!! Had some extremely strong winds here a couple of hours ago. Just got back in from checking the children! A piece of flying debris landed right on top of one of my plants inside of it's wind shelter. It did not break the main trunk, but it did snap off one of the vines. The problem is that it got so flattened that I don't know if it was the main or not. Another one has some leaves that got torn, but no broken stems. The sad part is that the plant that got smashed was HOMER. See my diary to see him if my pics are up yet. Was really looking nice until today. One other AG was bent over but not broken. Any help here would be awesome. I am really bumbed right now. After all the improvement after the cold snap and now this.

6/10/2008 9:59:16 PM

Cochecton, NY

Actually just got a call from my folks. Reports of a tornado hitting by there house about eight miles away from here. Looks like one passed through here too!!! Just noticed I spelled bummed wrong!!! Weather stopped. Going to take pictures of the damages!!!

6/10/2008 10:08:35 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Noname seed is good practice, I have one (see Fat Fred saga) but. I got mine from a seedsaver place so who knows what it is other than an AG. (I also put in two 'mainstream' plants) Bummer about getting flattened... pick off what you can, water it gently, make sure they're buried to the cots, and make sure on windbreak. Give it a week. I've had times I ripped my hair out and in a week it came around. Know that that sort of stress does lower the size of something it could've grown, but. A lot of growers here are very generous with seed, next pass maybe you can get some and try that.

Ugh on tornado, our weekly paper printed some of a tiny one NW of here last week... which is strange for us, really late in the year. Hope no one was hurt. Hope Homer and the others come around for you.

6/11/2008 11:38:06 AM

Cochecton, NY

Well I just got home from work and went to check on homer and the gang. To my surprise......even with all the bullet holes in their leaves from the hail and poor homer with the broken leg, everybody looks good. They all actually increased in size since was out there @ 7:00 this morning! Hopefully things stay looking up. A question for anyone that can answer. I have read many times that the main vine will grow in the opposite direction of the first true leaf. On most of my plants, that stem coming out opposite is quite smaller than the rest of them. Is this normal? Should I be worried? On homer, I do not believe that is the one that got broken, but not sure! Any ideas out there?

6/11/2008 8:06:58 PM

Minnesota

Don't name the plant, Name the pumpkin...

6/11/2008 8:40:38 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Most all of them will come out running away from the first leaf. So where the second comes up is the way your main is aimed.

I name the plant :) After all the care I have to lavish on it, it needs something to be referred to by. The one I let the plant keep can share the same name, heh.

I have found that a week usually will make you feel better, if they're getting the proper stuff to grow, they will grow, and come around. My big vine is on probably the eighth of it's nine lives but. I have faith that it'll give me "something" even if it is a halloween deck decoration.

Take a careful look at Homer and you should be able to see which one is the main. If it looks like it got terminated, pick a couple good looking secondaries on one side to use as the main. You can trace your main and see if it got the end broken off such that it's no longer growing.

6/18/2008 2:43:29 PM

Cochecton, NY

Good ol' Homer is doing just fine! The stem that got busted finally showed signs of decay after a week. So off it came! The main vine is starting to take off well. I just did a gutsy move today and took down my wind barriers. The plants were getting close to outgrowing them anyway, plus it seems as if no matter how I train the main down, it would curve up toward the sun! I am going to put pics upi in a few minutes. They should be viewable tomorrow!

6/18/2008 9:32:14 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Here we figure that our average winds are 25mph and gusts to 40 are common... I would say re-set your wind protection farther out. If you look at some of my pics you will see a fence barrier with tarp into the prevaling winds and some moveable ones (feed tubs, empty) to help with the less common angles.

6/18/2008 11:14:32 PM

Cochecton, NY

Good advice OkieGal! I need to pick up some more stakes today. I am fresh out.

6/19/2008 8:02:16 AM