Re: Females on side vines
Frank, Wayne
Wow Frank that was well spoken..... here is a little more info to help on
choosing pumpkins..
1. Try as hard as possible to pollinate the pumpkins on the main vine with
the same males Believe me when it comes to Culling time if you have to make a
decision on Shape, positioning, growth rate and then throw in male pollinator
you will really make it hard on your self.
2. I leave a pumpkin on the end of the secondaries when I pinch off the tip
at the end of the patch and let them open pollinate. I saw Brett Hester
explain this on one of Holland's videos and just kept it up when they get to basket
ball size or so I start culling them kinda kicks the roots in on the runner
and keeps the ones on the main from blowing up !!!
3. I really look at shape when making a final cull on the main vine. I look
for pumpkins/squash that are very short stem to blossom if I have the choice.
Most pumpkins on a plant are very similar but not always.
4. I pollinate everything on the main vine after they get to June 28th. I
can cull later but i can't go back and put on a pumpkin. I have had such bad
main vine breakage that i am just lucky to get a pumpkin pollinated. Go with the
sure thing you never know if you are going to go out and pollinate a pumpkin
at exactly 10 feet and find that the rest of the main has broken just inches
from the pumpkin giving yourself no other options.
5. Decide on culling pumpkins when they start to get near touching each
other OR start putting too much tension on the vine. Last year I had three within
3 feet of each other they were on both sides of the vines and I let them get
to about 150 lbs before they got near touching BUT they really had the mainvine
stressed from pulling against each other..
6. here is the hard part you have decided which pumpkin is growing faster
and which one has better vine positioning and which one has the best shape. Now
you have to cut off the rest! make sure you look over the pumpkins one more
time and look for flaws !! this put me out of the running last year. those 3
pumpkins I had within 3 feet I previously mentioned ..the one i went with had the
best shape and was growing 2 times faster then the rest in fact it was slow
pitch ball sized before it hit the ground. well I looked it over and decided it
was the one. at 663 lbs just a little over a month later it stopped growing I
missed the fact that inside the lobes of the pumpkin they looked like they
had just a little inset where it went back into the lobes where they all came
together ended up that the lobes never came together and rotted from the inside
out... Look over the pumpkin for ANYTHING that looks Odd !!!
7. I almost always set pumpkins on the secondary mains even with true
Christmas tree patterns and Quarter flags. I have had problems later on with the
pumpkin on the main and the one on the secondary ended up being the biggest ...
plus this is another way to get a good cross and later in the season you can
cut the runner that the secondary pumpkin is on from the stump and just let it
stay alive the rest of the season feeding off the roots on the runner and its
leaves!
OK that is allot to say but I had some time and thought this would help
some of the newbies take care !!!
Kevin Smith
Squash Buckler................ PB .... any day and counting !!!!!!
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