No Subject
2) I just pollinated my first 2 females. How long until I know if
I've got a bun in the oven? (The flowers closed like a little
version of the Little Shop of Horrors plant.)
Usually, if the fruit is going to abort, it starts to take on a "dull"
appearance, as opposed to the nice shiney skin it has when the flower
first blooms. However, it can grow for a little while and then abort
for various reasons. temp, stress, and i'm sure other things. if it
starts to grow, and then stops, or starts to get soft instead of firm,
its over. If it continues to grow, and stays firm, you're in business.
3) One of my vines tried to escape by climbing a nearby fence.
It almost made it but broke off in the attempt. Do I need to
treat the broken end with anything? I'm pretty sure that a well
publicized failure like that should discourage any other vines
from making the attempt.
I've had a few vines this year "escape", they did okay. Usually, most
people apply something to the break, fungicide, and bury the vine.
since i don't know how high up on your fence the break is, you might
leave it and just cover it with a fungicid paste. Just mix a little
water and a powdered fungicide like captan, or sulfur. you don't need
much water, you want the concoction to be like thick paint. you can
apply it with a paintbrush. Most people use captan, i however use
sulfur, supposedly captan causes irreversible eye damage if you get it
in your eyes, not for me thanks!
4) Can I coerce a new pumpkin into laying across (on the opposite
side) it's vine? There's a nice little spot that looks more
suitable than the one where it would likely fall. (note: it's
still
vertical.) (when I say "coerce" I of course mean gently
and slowly)
I've never tried to "coerce" a pumpkin to grow on the opposite side of
the vine that it's growing on. however i don't really think it would
work very well. your best bet is to try and move the pumpkin SLOWLY
over a period of a few days or even weeks, to a perpendicular angle to
the vine on the side that its naturally growing on. The reason being is
that when the shoulders of the pumpkin grow outward you don't want them
to rip the vine from the stem, a perpendicular angle helps a lot. Also,
sever the tap roots underneath each leaf node for a few feet in either
direction to ease the stress on the stem as the fruit grows. This way,
as the stem gets higher, so does the vine. You can also get your
pumpkin to a perpendicular angle by moving the vine, and holding it down
with something, ie, hangars cut in half, bamboo shoots. basically your
training the vine. i still do that now just to ease up on the stem
stress. you can always prune your plant to allow your pumpkin to grow
if there are vines behind it. just cut, paste, and bury.
I hope this helped out some. You might want to get yourself a copy of
Don Langevin's book, "How to Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins volumes I
and II" Both are excellent, very helpful and informative. They're from
Annedawn publishing, i don't have the number with me, but you should be
able to get a copy fairly easily.
Good luck! keep us all posted
Scott Armstrong
Long island NY
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