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Date Posted

Cincinnati, OH

How should I cut this thing...(uh i'm sorry punky, your more than just a "thing") off and prepare the wound afterwards

8/6/2009 9:20:07 AM

[email protected]

With a knife.

8/6/2009 10:09:25 AM

norway , maine

lol..

8/6/2009 10:16:54 AM

Cincinnati, OH

Oh..a couple of sherlocks.....Let me pull this knife back out of me first. Let me specify that the second question is the one I need answered and neither one of you could get pass the chance to dish some ridicule. Thanks (all good fun, I can take it)
Anybody out there kind enough to answer the question...How do I prepare the wound afterwards. This is my first time, so it's a legitament question.

8/6/2009 10:45:39 AM

Minnesota([email protected])

For a weighoff, I cut the vine on both sides of the stem, within on inch of the stem(a rule many weighoffs have I believe).

8/6/2009 11:23:44 AM

Cincinnati, OH

I plan to grow two more pumpkins on the vine though, i'm afraid of it bleeding to death

8/6/2009 11:34:50 AM

norway , maine

i just thought it was funny. no disrespect intended

8/6/2009 11:42:09 AM

Minneapolis, MN

I'm actually curious about this too... I mean, I know I could just go at it with a knife to the stem roughly in the middle between the vine and fruit and things would probably be fine. But I wonder if there is an actual 'way'.

I just generally cut my vines however is easiest (normally right after a node) and never 'dress' them afterwards ... but that leaves air openings into the hollow part of the vine... should I be doing that differently as well?

8/6/2009 12:50:00 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Just cut the thing off and forget about it. If your plant gets sick, its because of your soil or your failure to spray properly, not because of the wound you create by pruning. If I treated the vine with fungicide or whatever every time I prune, I'd never get anything else done.

8/6/2009 2:00:06 PM

Litchfield N. H. 03052

Is what you are saying, that you want to remove a pumpkin from a vine and continue to grow more fruit on that vine? We usually only have one pumpkin per plant and cutting is not an issue>

8/6/2009 2:11:59 PM

Cincinnati, OH

It's not my plant suffering...the pumpkin just aborted and i'm growing new ones...the plant is growing at a spring rate, and i'm letting it do what it wants to do as I stated a while back and that is...grow more pumpkins. My plant is now healthy again, I have beat the borers and it has reached 45 feet and still growing a foot a day. The vine at the end is as thick as it is at the stump. "The Plant" will produce more pumpkins if I get more advice from (you know yourself girl) on how to keep the wound left from "punky" from bleeding the plant. Is that the way I should have put it? Cheddah..no disrespect was recieved...so not intended right...I like a pull on the leg every now again, i'm guilty of dishing it out on myself like that. :-)

8/6/2009 3:07:04 PM

Cincinnati, OH

***just a quick note on a subject other than pumpkins....once gain....(sigh) sorry. I have made my last move in my game of chess regarding my 5th and final surgery on my shoulder. I call CHECKMATE! Sorry...had to blurb that out...i'm dancing like an idiot... putting an end to others thinking i've been doing this same dance all along. I have covered and uncovered every move...my light has finaly come. I thank GOD alone for this.

8/6/2009 3:17:46 PM

Pocatello ([email protected])

Cut the vine, not the stem. So, there are actually two cuts.

Cutting the stem will allow that stem to quickly dehydrate. You'll loose a half-a-pound and loose the weighoff.

8/6/2009 3:27:22 PM

Cincinnati, OH

Punky is a midget, does anyone get. (I know who's gonna give the right reply)

8/6/2009 3:38:30 PM

Pembroke, New Hampshire

Cut through the stem. If it's not growing, there's nothing flowing though it and nothing will be lost. Even a growing pumpkin stem can be cut without pause. It'll drip some but will stop, all without affecting the overall plant health or the growth of other pumpkins. I will sometimes bury the exposed end of the stem. An alternative is to sprinkle some captan over it.
CliffWarren...cutting the vine before and after the pumpkin is only for pumpkins going to the fair, not for pumpkins to be removed for poor growth/aborting/disease. He still wants a healthy plant to grow additional pumpkins distal to the one being cut off.

8/6/2009 3:46:33 PM

Cincinnati, OH

Does the release of pressure off the vine give the plant a boost as well?

8/6/2009 3:56:23 PM

Johnstown, Ohio

If the fruit has already aborted, cutting will not help our plant...sorry. If it is still growing, just not well, it will help at least the other fruit grow better.

8/6/2009 6:32:32 PM

Farmville, Virginia ([email protected])

Pumpkinator, if you have other pumpkins already set on the same plant then cut the stem on "punky" about a third of the way through (in a "V" shape today, then cut it another third of the way tomorrow and all the way off on the next day. This gradually sends the nutrients that may have been going into "punky" to the other fruit. If you whack it all at once it may throw to much to the other fruit and cause them to also abort. Hope this is the answer you are looking for.

8/6/2009 6:43:43 PM

Cincinnati, OH

Bingo hoots, right on the money. Thank you very much

8/6/2009 8:11:09 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

If you are cutting to remove the pumpkin for compost or carving right away, cut the stem. If you are cutting for weighoff, cut the vine, and cut feet away on each side so you can put the ends in water and help slow the fruit losing moisture (weight). Depending on size of fruit, 3-5 feet on each side. At weighoff trim to the required length before going onto scale. (one inch from stem). On a plain removal, cut half one day and half the next on the stem, to slow the shock to anything else on the plant so you don't blow those too.

8/7/2009 1:12:37 PM

Bemidji Minnesota

I culled one several days ago, It was not so large I had to use the 2 day method, where half is cut one day and the other half the next to reduce shock, mine was abotu grapefruti size, so not a big shock.

Anyhow, I cut close to the vine, so as to not leave a hollow spot facing up where water may collect and start a rot problem on the main.

I like to cut close to the main to prevent this. Same with cutting off leaves. I don't like little places where water can sit on the plant, so I get down to the vine. The trick is to not go in so deep you hurt the vascular system of the main, while going deep enough that you don't make a little water bowl left over.

8/7/2009 1:29:14 PM

Somers, CT

Meathead320 has a good point, especially if you are culling or lose a bigger one and still want to try again. If the plant is in full grow mode and pushing to the large pumpkin, if you cut it off, anything else will explode. Better to wean it off if you do not want to see parts everywhere. I cut one off three years ago and got to see a small one left over take all the energy for about a day before it blew.

8/7/2009 3:57:42 PM

Cincinnati, OH

Ahhhh,.... So i'll let this plant feed a few more than the two more pumpkins currently seemingly set, Pumpkins are comming out everywhere on this plant. I pinch off three or four a day at the way it's growing.

8/8/2009 2:55:05 AM