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I'm very new to this, so please help me understand. Why are tertiary leaves bad? Wouldn't more leaves equal more potential energy to grow the fruit?

10/4/2022 11:47:05 PM

Eugene,OR

As the season progresses you need to have airflow & sunlight or you will have mildew & disease problems…too many leaves too close together are a problem.

10/4/2022 11:55:11 PM

Gourd Zone, WA

More leaves might be like having more amperage, but when each leaf is half shaded it seems to reduce the pumpkin "voltage". In practice, my experience is the plants that have less leaves are more efficient in getting energy into the pumpkin even though a plant with more leaves might produce more total energy it usually struggles when it comes to putting that energy into the pumpkin. (The "higher amp lower voltage" energy doesnt go as readily into the pumpkin.) Take with a grain of salt since I'm neither an electrician, nor a top pumpkin grower !!

10/5/2022 1:04:33 AM

Western NY

Tertiaries in and of themselves are not bad - all of my plants use them in some way to fill in space. You just don't want things to turn into a jungle.

10/5/2022 8:02:16 AM

Kutztown, PA

I think it's a question of how much leaf surface is needed to get the most nutrients etc. to the pumpkin. That's likely different for each plant but it's seems that 800 sf - 1000 sf is a good starting range. Since each vine requires nutrients to grow it's parts, i.e. leaves, stalks, vines, flowers, apical meristems of roots and vine ends if you let the tertiaries grow the nutrients (sugars etc.) that might have gone to the pumpkin will be much reduced by tertiary growth. Keep in mind the plant is trying to feed many pumpkins with that additional growth. The tertiary growth is not needed since we're making it grow only one pumpkin. We do that by decreasing the number of "sinks" down to a minimum. Generally only the apical meristems of the root ends, the pumpkin cells, and any vine ends not terminated.

10/5/2022 11:25:40 AM

Plymouth, MN

I also use tertiaries to backfill my patch. Just as important as leaves are roots. If you aren't able to manage your tertiaries (e.g. the vines popping in the middle of your canopy) they aren't going to contribute to your root field and will probably be a net negative in that they need to draw water away from the fruit to maintain themselves.

10/6/2022 9:46:52 AM