little experiment
List
I had an accidental experiment I wanted to share with all of you. After
Halloween I took my 900.8 Lyons cull and took all the seeds that were in the
Rotten Soup at he bottom of the pumpkin and tilled them into the patch. About
50 of the seeds germinated and were growing nicely. I let them get to the
third true leaf stage and then needed to till again so I undug each one to
look at the roots. To my seprise about 30% had no true TAP root! they just
went a couple of inches into the soil from the stump and stopped then small
alternate roots from higher up grew down. I had this problem with my 758
Smith plant this year which had no good size roots at the stump and was
functioning from the roots at the leaf margins....
Made me think !!! Maybe this is why some plants that were only were
watered at the stump and no vine burying have done great for me in the past
(Tap Root) and some that had vine burring did great (feeding off of leaf
margins). Maybe the ones that I watered on the stump had a true "STUMP" and
the others that I buried did not.
This would lead you to believe that it truly depends on that individual
seed whether vine burring is a MUST and for others it is not. I know the
758.5 Kolb had no true STUMP (from wind) and still was a GREAT plant and my
703 Smith* was only watered at the stump with no vine burying and did great
!!
Anybody have any ideas on this ??? Have a wonderful Holiday season !!
Kevin Smith
Pumpkin Pirate
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