This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

RE: Female Flowers

Some large pumpkins have been grown 8' from the main stem.  My opinion
is
to leave it on and measure the stats of your pumpkin before you cut it
off.

Who knows, the close one could be the winner.

Don't forget 
1) to adjust your pumpkin to be perpendicular to your vine
2) create a "s' shape to support future height growth.
3) record the number of lobes of each female flower.
4) record the width and girth of the pumpkin daily and decide which one
is growing the best before removal.
Some big hitters remove the poor performing pumpkins when they are
around 60-80 lbs.
If you do not follow the "s" shape rule, be sure to cut the roots at
each leaf node before stem split occurs.
What this means....on each side of the pumpkin is a leaf node which
needs to be loosen from the soil so
it can freely expand with the pumpkin growth. Last year, I place the
loosen roots in a jar of water.
Duncan McAlpine

>----------
>From: 	THERESA HASSON[SMTP:th77@columbia.edu]
>Sent: 	Wednesday, June 18, 1997 1:28 PM
>To: 	Kurt Frederick
>Cc: 	pumpkins@athenet.net
>Subject: 	Re: Female Flowers
>
>Kurt Frederick wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Eric.
>> 
>> Potentially, any or all of the females could be pollenated and set fruit.
>> However, I would allow the vines to become much longer before setting any
>> fruit.  You can cut off the first females.  More will appear near the ends
>> of your vines as they grow.
>> 
>> As far as burying, I would also let the vines grow a bit before I did that.
>> I assume your vines are perhaps between 3 and 4 feet long as they were 25"
>>a
>> few days ago.  I wouldn't bury any female flowers (unless you are cutting
>> them off that part of the vine anyway).  I'm not an expert on burying
>>vines,
>> but I wait until the leaf joint I'm burying has put out a side shoot that
>>is
>> perhaps 8" or more in length and a large thick tendril is growing out of
>>it.
>> I also leave the last 2 feet of vine unburied until it has fallen naturally
>> to the ground.
>> 
>> Kurt Frederick
>> 
>> At 10:12 AM 6/15/97 -0700, you wrote:
>> >
>> >Hi Kurt,
>> >       The shape of the ovaries are round and are about the size of a
>>grape.
>> >They are yellow.  They have 5 sepals.  What's puzzling to me is the
>> >proximity of the flowers to the main root.  They are all within 20
>> >inches.  Where's the pumpkin going to set?  There's not enough room for
>> >a ton of pumpkin (hehehe) without smashing the plant.  I thought the
>> >flowers were suppose to be out at ten feet.  I buried most of the vines
>> >this morning, which brings me to another question.  These female flowers
>> >are real close to the vine and make it difficult to bury the vines
>> >without burying the flowers.  Is this normal?
>> >
>> >Eric
>> >Port Orchard, WA
>> >
>> >Hi again I forgot to ask..... Is there an art to lopping off the female 
>flowers before the vine is 10 or 15 ft?  th77@columbia.edu
> Thanks again
>  Teri from NY Southern Tier
>
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index