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Bemidji Minnesota

Hi all.

I am thinking about cutting my main vine. I got a decent grower (for my patch size and lack of soil amendments) at about 14ft. The Main is a total of 20ft long now.

It is continuing only about 6 feet behind the pumpkin. I did not let any secondaries form on it past the Pumpkin, for spacing reasons.

I also terminated the main at 6ft after the fruit, once I knew I had a good fruit set. I also had to curve the vine back into the patch, and the leaves are now in a cluster with the secondaries I had to train parallel to the vine, for spacing.

The 6ft of main past the pumpkin has already rooted.

Also the two leaf nodes before the Pumpkin there are no secondaries, they self terminated. So, it is 2 nodes back that the closest secondaries are from the fruit.

Will this still work for a "pitchfork" formation if I let the closest 2 keep going, even though they are 2 nodes back?

I am thinking I should cut off that last 6ft, to reduce stem stress, but I want to make sure this is not a big mistake if it already has roots and is drawing nutrients back to the fruit. Do they even send nutrients backward?

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryView.asp?season=2009&grower=43894&action=L


Also, did I cut off too much from the leaf stem when I cut the leaf over the pumpkin?

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=116209

8/10/2009 1:56:59 AM

Bristol R.I. USA

I had to do the same thing. I believe that anytime you cut leaves from the main it stops nutrients from entering the fruit. Then again if you gotta relieve the stress of the stem then you gotta make your decision.

8/10/2009 3:39:39 AM

Bemidji Minnesota

Based on what it looks like in the picture, as the vine is already raised up about 6", and the stem of the pumpkin is reaching up to it right now, maybe I should let it go a bit until it needs it?

That way it can still get all the nutrients it can from that last rooted 6ft, until the stem is starting to curve downward, then I cut the last 6ft off (2 day half cuts) to allow the vine to come up more at that time?

I hope I was not pre-mature to cut off the leaf directly above the fruit, but last night she kept chugging along.

8/10/2009 1:47:21 PM