Re: burying vines
Hi Jamie, I just keep a shovel near the pumpkin patch and
bury the new rootlets as the vine lays down. If the vine
tends to run up into the air then I use a "staple" made
from a piece of plastic coat hanger and gently staple the
vine to the ground. Use some care in stapling, if the vine
has a way to go to reach the ground, then push it down over
a day or two, otherwise you may break the vine. As the vine
gets used to it's new position, you can move the staple out
further on the vine. I just bury the rootlets, not the
whole vine, but we don't have squash bugs on this side of
the Rockies, and pest insects aren't usually a problem
here, (we live in a non agricultural area, so there's no
big breeding ground) you may want to bury the vine
completely to help prevent bug access. Maybe someone from
your area will reply if this helps.
The male blossoms are on long stems, usually nearer to
the stump end of the vine. The anther is some what q-tip
shaped, and has visable pollen on it. The female is on a
short stem, usually farther out on the vine. It is bulbous
at the base of the petals(your future pumpkin) and the
stigma inside the flower has 3-5 odd looking lobes. The
bulbous base and stem length are the easiest to use. The
morning that you have a female flower open, You should
polinate it. Take a male flower and tear off the petals
without knocking the pollen off, and rub the pollen off the
anther onto the lobes of the stigma in the female flower.
Try to get pollen onto every lobe, and use 3-4 male flowers
if you have them.
I hope this helps, get Don Langevin's books "Growing World
Class Giant Pumpkins I and II". Both books can be gotten
through Amazon if you can't find them locally. I guess I'd
better get off line and see if my plants have any open
females too.
Good luck, Matt
--- Jamie Knotters <pepcidac@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hello everyone. I am a 14 year old from southern Ontario.
> I'm first time
> grower of giant pumpkins and I have two questions. What
> is the best way to
> bury vines so that they root and so that the vine doesn't
> push itself back
> out of the ground? I would also like to know how to
> polinate and how to tell
> a female flower from a male. I have many flowers on my
> plant but I'm not
> sure what to do with them. I'm sure many of you have
> answers to these
> questions and I would really appresiate it if you could
> help me.
> THanks, Jamie
>
________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
> http://www.hotmail.com
>
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Pumpkin-growing FAQ:
> http://www.mallorn.com/lists/pumpkins/search.cgi
> To sign-off this list, send email to
> majordomo@mallorn.com with the
> message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
>
=====
Good fishing!
Matt Moore
Visit my Severum Page at:
http://www.virtualseeds.com/matt.html
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get Yahoo! Mail – Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin-growing FAQ: http://www.mallorn.com/lists/pumpkins/search.cgi
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
