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Ashby, MA

Hi All,

I wanted to get advice from all of you on which pumpkin to keep on my 1789 Wallace plant.

I have a pumpkin set on a side vine about 4’ out on the vine and the side vine is about 18’
out on the main. I pollinated it on 7/4 and right now it’s about the size of a beach ball.

On 7/13, I pollinated a flower on the main about 28’ out. It’s now 5 days old and bigger than a softball. I looks to be growing a little each day and looks healthy.

I’m thinking about keeping the one on the main just because it’s on the main. However, maybe I should keep the one on the secondary since it’s doing ok. How long should I wait to make a decision? Do I wait until the one on the main is 10 days old?

Which one would all of you keep?

Thanks,
Greg

7/18/2012 12:34:52 PM

Central Minnesota

Others may disagree with this but I would keep the one on the side vine and cut the main at the side vine, making that side vine the new main. I had to do this with one plant this year and it worked even better than expected. Yes you lose a lot of plant but 28ft is a LONG way out.

7/18/2012 2:00:45 PM

Colorado

I think its a toss up-go with the pumpkin you like better.I dont think the side vine fruit will abort the mv fruit if you want more time.

7/18/2012 2:06:41 PM

morristown, Tn email [email protected]

the one on main

7/18/2012 8:18:22 PM

Smithville, Tn

Which ever you choose, do it soon. 2 yrs ago I had the same problem. I waited too long and it probably cost me at least 100 lbs on the one I kept. I choose the one on the main only because the side vine was only 3 feet from the stump and the one on the main was 15ft out. Like you, I posted a question and got multiple answers. What I went with was this....which ever you choose, don't throw the other away. Just cut it loose and bury as much of that vine as you can.
That one will continue to grow, very slowly I might add, but it does grow. My main 'kin grew to 475 and I won a Howard Dill award. The secondary one got to 114 so I had a big one for the porch at Halloween. The End!

7/19/2012 1:44:12 PM

Ashby, MA

Thanks all for the reply. I going to probably keep the one on the side vine since it's doing quite well. The side vine is at least 18' out on the main. The small pumpkin on the main at 28' is growing so I will leave it for now. If I see that it's growing at a much faster rate over the next week or two then I'll go with that one. If not I'll cull it and stick with the one on the secondary. At this point, I'm probably not going to win any weigh-off with either one.

7/19/2012 5:02:51 PM