From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Pataskala,OH

Is it just me or do pumpkin leaves seem to spread apart from each other in the evening? I have noticed this every growing year. Kind of looks like the plant is trying to give itself greater air circulation at night since it is more humid at night.

6/30/2011 9:51:13 PM

Vancouver Washington

The leaves contract as it gets cooler. This makes them cup and the diameter shrinks due to the leaf taking on more of a funnel shape. They are mostly water. Water contracts as it cools.

7/1/2011 12:47:39 AM

Vancouver Washington

unless of course you take the leaf tissue below 39 degrees...then it will start expanding as the water takes on a more 3 dimensional molecular structure...

then...if i remember right somewhere near sub-zero temperatures it contracts again and fractures itself...

pass me the pipe....

7/1/2011 12:57:52 AM

Jasper, Indiana

Could it be the plant cups it's leaves in the evening preparing itself to collect the dew as darkness falls?

Go to the patch early in the morning and look at all the wet soil around the leaf stalks.

7/1/2011 9:11:31 AM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Also Nick, have you not noticed that when it rains or you are overhead watering that the leaves will cup upwards slightly to catch more water and funnel it down the leaf to the stem and directly to the vine?

7/1/2011 12:22:12 PM

Pocatello ([email protected])

>> unless of course you take the leaf tissue below 39 degrees...

My patch would be a good place to test this phenomenon.

7/1/2011 1:36:05 PM