Re: Epiphany??
I noticed the same thing on one of my plants this year. The pumpkin on the
secondary only lasted a couple weeks after pollination before it rotted, But
a massive secondary developed there. The question is, how long does it take
for the vine to notice the pumpkin and start bulking up? And, would it be
worth the effort for the plant to set one on as many secondaries as possible
for this to work. Or, would we rather have the skinny secondaries feeding a
larger main vine? Something more to experiment with next year.
Andy Wolf
Western NY
-----Original Message-----
From: Beth Rado <rado1000@hotmail.com>
To: pumpkins@mallorn.com <pumpkins@mallorn.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 10:57 PM
Subject: Epiphany??
>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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