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Auburn California

Good morning all. Curious how many of you are terminating the primary vine right after the determined keeper pumpkin and who is not. Thank you in advance, Randy

6/25/2023 12:16:49 PM

Torrance, Ca.

Of the HH I know, only one that I can think of.


Hopefully one will come on bp and post to this. Most don't come on anymore because they got tired of the BS that was going on years ago.

I consider Jason a HH but he's off vacationing all summer!;)

What a year he had!! Those things just kept growing and growing!

6/25/2023 12:29:03 PM

Plymouth, MN

Not a HH, but I terminated after the keeper on one of my plants since the main vine split on me. Will let you know how it goes. Have both the secondary at the kin and one from the node past the pumpkin going still, and will pitchfork tertiaries off of them to fill in the area past the fruit. May do the same on the second plant, but haven't made that call yet

6/25/2023 2:32:37 PM

Austin MN

Not a HH but I terminated mine on the 1989.5 last year and will probably always do it after seeing how nice it was to pull back and sweep the vines in front of the fruit.

6/25/2023 8:54:03 PM

Bethlehem CT

TConway 1989 makes you a heavy hitter in my book.

6/26/2023 7:40:20 AM

Western NY

I kept my main (and 5 or 6 other vines) growing last year until August 22 on the plant that grew my 2493. I haven't terminated at a pumpkin in a long time but not necessarily opposed to it.

6/26/2023 7:42:33 AM

Auburn California

Yes I agree with big moon, if your pumpkin is grown in Rubin's patch specifically as a pollinator the pumpkin world has its eye on your seed! I too am growing a 2356.7 Mendi X 1747.5 Handy hoping for the same outcome you had :)! Looks like one of five of my plants will have a primary vine terminated right past the chosen pumpkin and the other four will be traditional. Thank you all for your responses, your input is very much considered and appreciated, Randy

6/26/2023 9:00:21 AM

Westmoreland, KS

I think I've tried almost every pattern out there. My thoughts are just grow any pattern you want for what works in your space. If you have a big healthy plant it will send the juice to the pumpkin no matter what type of pattern you are growing the plant.

6/26/2023 9:41:50 AM

Grittyville, WA

I think mobeymike has tried this with good results. But overall I think its still more common to have a vine break unintentionally than for growers to intentionally sever the main.

6/26/2023 10:50:05 AM

Wisconsin

I'm not sure there is any growth advantage or disadvantage to cutting it off, but like Tanner said it makes it easier to work around the pumpkin especially if you put them on a scale. Depending how long you wait on your keeper you could be cutting a big portion of the vine, so its not always the most efficent.

6/26/2023 10:55:29 AM

Bethlehem CT

That is the Challenge. You Have to be all in...... right away, otherwise you are removing a ton of vine. I just dead ended mine at the pumpkin yesterday...So all my bets are in... if things go wrong I will be scrambling to get another pollination on a newly designated "main" vine. Fingers are crossed.

6/26/2023 1:31:22 PM

New Castle, Indiana

For me it's going to depend on how much space I have once the main vine hits the edge of the patch. If there's room I'll hook it around and let it go a bit further. I may terminate it in late July as by then I'll be struggling to train the secondaries.

6/26/2023 9:49:57 PM

Whidbey Island

I'm no HH by a long shot but I have heard one HH (who shall remain unnamed) suggest letting the primary grow beyond the set pumpkin but trim off all of its secondaries. I tried this last year and the primary grew for a few weeks and then slowed down to a crawl. I assume all the plant's energy went to the kin and not further vine growth.

6/27/2023 12:23:15 PM

Colorado

Im doing two with termed mains at the fruit And two letting the mains grow.Stay tuned to see which works out better.I do like the access into the fruit for later repositioning aspect of terming the main.

6/27/2023 12:40:22 PM

valtierra/spain

The last 2 world records, Mathias and Stefano had plant Before and after the pumpkin. also the Pumpkin 2907 of the Paton brothers. I think the results say that you have to grow a plant after the pumpkin. They are objective numbers.

6/27/2023 3:53:13 PM

Grittyville, WA

Definitely let us know how it goes, cojoe. Its tempting to just copy the Patons, but we also gotta figure out what works best in our own patch.

6/28/2023 1:00:34 AM

Upa Creek, Mo

Donkin used to be on here and grew or came close to the Canadian record. I remember he let the main grow all year one season. You could go back and look at his old diaries how that worked out.

6/28/2023 8:22:35 AM

Torrance, Ca.

I think this one is going to be up in the air for another 20 years. lol

People keep surprising us and so do the fruit.

In my head it seems the main should still be growing to send signals to the plant and fruit to keep growing,,, but if the " sink " is at the fruit why would this matter?

The debate continues.

Most of the HH I talk with all keep growing the main, some 70 plus feet past the fruit.

6/28/2023 9:51:12 AM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Also not a HH, but I have experimented with this and have always grown the bigger pumpkins with the vine terminated at the fruit. What we experienced is very little rooting “after” the pumpkin and everyone once in awhile the main vine would shut down and terminate itself. I can tell you that vine maintenance and eliminating stem stress is a no-brainer, when you terminate the main after the fruit.

6/29/2023 10:24:56 AM

Austin MN

Going back to my college days studying horticulture and botany. The main controls auxin flow and apical dominance. By terminating it you switch to cytokines. Could it be possible that some of those cytokines lead to longer cell division or perhaps a heavier fruit in the long run? Be interesting to test out if possible. I will note that my secondaries really took off in growth after i terminated the main.

6/29/2023 12:36:20 PM

Torrance, Ca.

Good one Tanner!


Nice taking a year off, right!:) I'm loving it! Tending to my cover crops is a piece of cake!

6/30/2023 11:24:08 AM

Syracuse, NY

Ummm, how does a terminated main compare to a terminated main and a secondary being allowed to take its place? F'rinstance, I did NOT notice a bit of Glyphosate being able to bypass my otherwise-extremely-careful weed killing right up next to every plant and the damage is so bad on one that that main vine is not likely to recover, but there is a nice secondary that tomorrow will be crowned King as far as that plant is concerned. Does the plant switch in any way in that scenario or is it a timing thing, pertaining to only when there is a fruit on the plant? If I knew nothing about cytokines and gibberellins and such
(I heard of 'em butt don't know 'em, personally, lol) I'd believe that
'It's gotta go somewhere - If not forward, then outward.' I actually snapped the main stems offa some
weeds last yr. and observed the surrounding 'Secondaries'' actions thereafter - they grew taller than the original stem tip had been. It was neat-o.
My goal yet unattained is to have a monsterous plant by pollination time of the first week of July and termination of every vine no matter what soon thereafter.
'Here - what you see is what you get, Pumpkin!'
I sometimes might wonder if a plant wonders about its future;
It seems to grow rather rapidly over weeds and a hedgerow...
Similarly, a plant that is in a CUP on the edge of a pallet (My 21 FP) is growing faster than ones in the ground. It is experimental, to be 'grounded' tomorrow. If it senses that 'Well, this is it!',
maybe it acts accordingly. Do not feel compelled to answer but I'm sure that if anyone does it will be insightful. I think it is all related to the original post---eg

6/30/2023 10:35:15 PM

Grittyville, WA

I don't think there would be a difference pumpkinpal, except that you are sacrificing even less plant to dead end a secondary vine. I know the dead ended ones will grow faster initially, but whether you would be sacrificing some late fall growth, is up to your best guess. I won't venture to guess, you know your patch better than I do.

7/1/2023 1:18:49 AM

Grittyville, WA

Oh, well if it is the secondary that is replacement for the main, then I guess it would be exactly the same?

7/1/2023 1:20:57 AM

Syracuse, NY

Let's just think that if a pumpkin is growing at 40-50 pounds per day, the rest of the plant is probably not gonna grow nearly as quickly late-season due to the pumpkin being such a huge sink. I'll bet plumbers make great growers! As far as I can tell, it is all turgidity-based;
The rest of the plant is a sink up until then and if any part is removed strategically and heals over and the rest is monitored closely, even psychologically to the grower AND chemically in the plant ONCE it switches gears (like a human at puberty, perhaps) upon pumpkin growth, then the rest of the plant probably slows down (and/or remains the same, frozen somewhat) to allow more support for that fruit growth only. However, aside from casual observation, WHOM might keep track of the plant's growth after measurements of the fruit begin?
Oh, there must be just a few, I'm sure!
(Insert strange analogy here) - Nope - I'm out, but a saying I once read was
'A lit candle loses nothing by lighting another';
Awww??? So, the juice went here and now it goes over here -
no love lost, at least in my opinion and thank you for yours.
Indeed, it was insightful! I am to sever said main vine right NOW.
PS---Everyone, if I am wrong in any weigh here, do enlighten me,
Like a Candle. LIT for the very first...
I had a revelation today about my diminishing pumpkin weights - Lack of sunshine due to increasing tree growth in the area over the last 20 years.
Just a walk around the yard at 7 am or so opened my eyes to it,
and where my new PB will be next year, lol---eg

7/1/2023 11:16:03 AM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Usually, it is new or newish growers that ask about terminating the main vine at the pumpkin, and I’ve prolly said this a few times on this same topic that if you are a new or newish grower, you will up your odds/chances of getting a pumpkin to the scale, by terminating the main vine once you’ve got your chosen pumpkin.

If you have a large enough plant, with sufficient well trained, buried vines, you will eliminate any possible stem stress, and won’t go “oh crap” when you haven’t left enough room and the main vine is now going to touch the growing shoulders.

New or newish growers look at my last years diary and see why I’m lucky I terminated the main and adjusted my pumpkin when I did, had we not done that it would have been all over.

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryView.asp?season=2022&grower=24190&action=L

I’ll be terminating all my main vines at the pumpkins again this year, we end up growing tertiary vines on the last secondaries to fill in the space anyways.

Happy Growing

7/1/2023 11:29:35 AM

Auburn California

Judging from all the responses (and thank you too all that have responded)dont seem to be a new or newish grower question, Ive been growing Atlantic Giants on about 25 years now thank you very much, Randy

7/1/2023 12:21:25 PM