From

Location

Message

Date Posted

New Hampshire, USA

What to do besides pulling it out?

5/17/2011 9:02:44 AM

Springfield, VT

If it is a double it can be trained to a single when th tip splits into 2 vines. A flat may be trained from a normal secondary. It is easier to use a backup at this stage.

5/17/2011 10:36:06 AM

ipswich, ma usa

Snip the tip of one of the doubles then water the hell out of it to correct the flat.

John (5150)

5/17/2011 11:08:48 AM

New Hampshire, USA

watering it a lot to help with the flatness...cant figure out where to cut it into 2.

5/17/2011 11:36:43 AM

ipswich, ma usa

yes, water it to pull out of the flatness.

5/17/2011 12:45:10 PM

Little-TON - Colorado

Start to shave it back....check out my diary....two yearZ ago...on the 991.....I shaved it down and chooZe the strongest.....trained it to be the main...and it did great...till the hail came and blasted it....

5/17/2011 1:43:37 PM

Pocatello ([email protected])

I wonder if you or someone could expound on watering it to correct the flat? This is the first I've heard of this...

5/17/2011 3:11:22 PM

ipswich, ma usa

A grower in my area had four plants one year where it was cold and sunless during the early month of May. The theory was the nutrient uptake from the soil somehow effects the plant to flatvine (cold(. He waterend very very heavy and all four plants puulled out of the flat vine. Water apparently dilluted the plants ability to suck up the nutrients that were being incorretly used by the plant that caused the mutation.

5/17/2011 3:30:59 PM

Linden, Mi.,

???????

5/17/2011 3:57:10 PM

ipswich, ma usa

Corn what?

5/17/2011 4:20:51 PM

Cold temps can affect the uptake of some nutrients (I want to say P or K uptake is affected but don't remember for sure). Watering excessively would leach nutrients out of the soil, especially the ones that leach easily (such as nitrogen). So.... if the flatvine is caused by an imbalance of nutrients, the temperature of the soil and any leaching could affect the growth of the flatvine. This is of course, possible, but there could be lots of other causes of the flatvine too...
I have a hard time believing that the excessive watering was the direct cause of the flatvine fix, unless you show some sort of scientific proof.
-Brigitte
PS Water wouldn't "dilute" the plant's ability to take up the nutrients, the nutrients just wouldn't be there anymore if this theory is correct.

5/17/2011 5:42:53 PM

Linden, Mi.,

Brigitte, I agree, amount of water (to much or to less) has nothing to do with the flat vine, its all in the genes.
I have had them, I just let them grow, trying different things with them, never set a pumpkin over 100 lbs., not saying you can not, but I never did.

5/17/2011 6:28:25 PM

Pocatello ([email protected])

Well, I don't know. What I do know is that I get frequent flat viners (like 1 or 2 out of 6 plants) every year, and I have cold May temps. We would be tempted to think that it is genetic, but starting last year I began to think that there could be a cold weather component, or... maybe cold weather triggers something in a plant that might be predisposed to flat vine... I don't know. If there were a sure answer, I'd be all ears.

I wonder if we could get all growers to publish there frequency of flat viners (i.e., 33% or 10% or 5% of their plants have trouble with flat vining) and then correlate this to something in their environment (cold temps, what else?) and then see if we see a trend.

5/17/2011 6:54:33 PM

Pocatello ([email protected])

That is, does it correlate more to certain gene pools, or to one's environment?

5/17/2011 6:56:16 PM

Litchfield N. H. 03052

Watering to cure a plant of flatvineing is true , I have done it many times. BR

5/17/2011 7:37:20 PM

New Hampshire, USA

What have people grown on a flat vine?

5/17/2011 10:04:47 PM

South Bloomfield, Ohio

If watering heavily will cure a plant of a flatvine condition, then I'll consider all this rain a preventive measure.

5/17/2011 10:45:55 PM

New Hampshire, USA

The extra water seems to be helping, I took off all extra leaves and tendrils this morning, and the split the double vine in half so now there are to distinct halves. We will see what happens now.

5/18/2011 8:47:13 AM

ipswich, ma usa

Thanks for backing me up Bill! Don't have to take my word Corn but you might want to take a World record holders. Tough to argue with proof wheather you believe it or not it has happened.

John (5150)

5/18/2011 9:09:16 AM

ipswich, ma usa

so hows the plant doing?

5/26/2011 8:57:05 AM