Epiphany??
I was just pulling out the last of my vines and had some miscellaneous
observations and questions gel into a new(?) insight. But then after it
clicked it seemed so obvious that I decided I’ve just been stupid all along
to have not seen it earlier. To wit…
This year I thought I had my soil in pretty good shape finally. Best
looking plant I’ve ever grown with a fruit that grew well until it went down
from a stem split. (I don’t understand stem splits yet, but I have some
ideas.) I feel I’m beginning to grasp the
watering/fertilizing/pushing/patience balance.
So anyway, I’m out there pulling up the covered secondary vines, and several
of them are just kind of ho-hum – not especially thick. (What? My soil
wasn’t as great as I thought??) But other vines are great, sturdy, thick,
things like tree trunks. The first really big one I pulled was the first
secondary off the main, so I figure it’s because it’s coming out near the
stump. But as I moved through the patch, there didn’t seem to be a pattern.
There would be a thick one, then a couple of thins, then another thick.
Suddenly I realized that each of the thick, tree-trunky ones was one that
had a pumpkin set and grow up to at least 100 pounds or so. Natch! But
this is cool, cause rather than simply being an interesting observation, it
is one that will probably affect my growing decisions next year.
IF having a developing fruit causes that particular vine to beef up, it
seems logical to me that I would want to set as many fruits as possible as
early as possible, and intentionally let each go for a while so that the
plant devotes some energy to beefing up the vines… give it enough time to
really build up some superhighway-style nutrient channels. Then if I’ve
timed it right, I will cull the fruits, the sources-and-sinks nutrient flow
would shift to the chosen fruit, and more nutrients would be moving toward
the remaining fruit through these beefier vines.
Pumkinguy and others have always said, “Set everything you can, and wait a
while to cull.” I always thought this was a prudent, risk-averse tactic to
avoid disappointment. But now I wonder if it is a constructive way to
enhance development of the plant.
Of course it may simply be a way to blow up your fruit faster!
Thoughts??
Beth
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