RE: Has anyone ever tried this??
Gus, Steve,
Last year I mounded the soil under the main vine of my
plants to help raise the vine especially near the
fruit. Where the first female flower formed on the
main vine, I also dug out a hollow so the pumpkin had
a place to grow into. I supported the pumpkin with a
small cardboard box while it was small. It crushed
the box as it grew and I removed it when the pumpkin
was large enough to fill the hollow.
This allowed the pumpkin to grow for most the season
without having to cut the tap roots on the vine near
the pumpkin. However, toward the end of the season,
my two largest pumpkins still started to tear
themselves away from the vine and I was forced to cut
the tap roots to relieve the stem stress.
If you grow a big one, I doubt that you can avoid
cutting the tap roots near the pumpkin at some point.
Mounding the soil and digging a hollow under the
pumpkin will let you retain the nearby tap roots for
much of the growth cycle. This year, I will be more
careful in monitoring the stem stress and cut the tap
roots before the stems damage themselves.
This year I also plan on burying a soaker hose around
the main vine. The leaf canopy tends to umbrella over
the main vine and shield it from my overhead watering.
We'll see if this helps.
vince
best 789 lbs. 2000
zone 9, the end zone
--- "Smithhisler, Paul"
<Paul.Smithhisler@dnr.state.oh.us> wrote:
> Steve,
>
> I have had similar thoughts. My biggest concern was
> getting water to the
> roots. I was thinking about placing a soaker hose
> in the middle of the pile
> to keep constant water to the main vine. Anyone who
> wants to comment on
> that idea..feel free.
>
> -Gus
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: S.Krug [r*@netzero.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 6:27 PM
> To: pumpkins
> Subject: Has anyone ever tried this??
>
>
> List, Has anyone ever grown fruit on a vine that was
> elevated? By this I
> mean, as the vine grew out you piled soil up and let
> the vine grow on top of
> it. In 1999 I did this to an extra plant I had
> growing, it was under
> 200sq.ft. The dirt was about 18" high and about 4
> foot wide, and went the
> length of the main. For some reason the main just
> ended about 15 foot out,
> but I had a fruit going on it about 9 foot out. The
> fruit grew and I never
> had to cut any of the roots off from under the main
> vine. I have some other
> ideas that would work well with type of thing, just
> need some others input.
> If anyone has tried this or anything like this I
> would like to hear from
> you! My fruit ended up 603lbs. and was not a wheel
> shape. But I could see
> were this type of growing would work well for a
> wheel shaped fruit.
> Steve Krug
> Amana Ia.
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