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Buffalo, New York

When should i cull pumpkins on my main vine?

I have 3 pumpkins on each main now of my 2 plants.

1 at 11' on day 13 about basketball size, the 2nd at 15' at about softball size, and the 3rds are at about 19' and 1 day old.

Should i wait until the 15' ones get to basketball size before culling any? If i wait, the first ones will be so much bigger and make it that much more difficult to see the knife.

None of the stem/vine positioning angles are perfect, but how much better is a 15' set out on main as to a 11' out set.

p.s. i still have many many vines to terminate, only a few on each plant are so far.

7/13/2009 1:11:17 PM

Gettysburg, PA

you could do like I did...let the deer and rabbits do the culling. :-(

I'm "stuck" with a basketball sized one 11' out. Luckily it's too big for their mouths, but I'm gonna fence them off tonight after work.

7/13/2009 1:32:20 PM

Indiana

In my experience, it has not been smart to cull a pumpkin after 10 days old. Every time I have done that, the fruit down the line have aborted.

7/13/2009 3:04:05 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

You doing two stage cutting? Pap I think warned me about that last year, sever halfways and sever rest next day to prevent it from surging the keeper....

7/13/2009 6:50:49 PM

Minnesota([email protected])

Tom,
Do you cull before 10 days old then?

7/13/2009 8:02:00 PM

Buffalo, New York

thanks people, sounds like maybe i should keep the 11' out fruit.

any other advice?

7/13/2009 11:37:10 PM

Wi

I'd agree 100% with Beach.

7/14/2009 9:05:14 AM

Buffalo, New York

Beach?

7/14/2009 10:44:01 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Tom B, Tom Beachy

7/14/2009 12:05:38 PM

maybe it's just luck but I have culled many fruit for 4 years that were 10+ days old and have never had a downstream fruit abort,,,just my .02

hard to make a decision b4 day 10 imo, not only on the one you plan to cull,,but the one or ones you are considering keeping

7/14/2009 5:50:09 PM

Minnesota([email protected])

Thanks for your input Dan. Maybe it depends more on the region or the particular patch.

7/14/2009 7:07:41 PM