Re: vine burial

On Aug 18, 2008, at 5:32 PM, vince wrote:


2. I do not recommend burying vine tips once they are
terminated as I explained before. I've seen fresh cut vine tips
bleed for weeks if buried.  Let terminated vines air dry and
heal.  This will reduce fluid loss.  I use bamboo stakes in a
crossing pattern to hold down the end of the vine at the last
leaf junction to keep the wind from flipping the terminated
vines.
I'm way late to weigh in here but i've had the majority of my patch be eaten up by groundhogs. The animals left nothing but stems, however all the plants continued to survive after being chewed and eaten. The ends of the stems peel back in 4 pieces and dry up. It's sad but funny to see the AG plants with a bunch of leaves and flowers one day and nothing there the next, a few days later the stems peel back and dry up and another cycle of leaves comes out. The two vines that have been left untouched get sprayed with Deer Off and Critter Ridder after it rains and have been left alone. Despite being eaten down to the nubs one of the vines has produced a pumpkin that is about the size of a beachball. It's got a main vine that is nearly 18 feet long now, the big pumpkin is about 10 feet down the vine. Another little one about like an onion another 5 feet down. These plants are pretty hardy given the abuse they've received.
So for whatever it's worth, I just let mother nature let the exposed stem dry up by itself and eventually the whole stem dries up and goes away. 

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