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Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Question.
Is there really any point in having the main vine growing after the chosen pumpkin?
I don’t believe the water and nutrition goes backward from the vine tip to the pumpkin...or does it?

I have one pumpkin at about 12’ and one at 14’ ..and the main vine tip is at about 17’ and growing fast..

Thanks for any info
Joe

7/6/2019 10:27:14 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

The main vine controls the hormones that regulate growth for the entire plant. For this reason alone l let it grow forever unless it is necessary to remove it due to some environmental reasons.

7/7/2019 12:04:10 AM

Grittyville, WA

Phloem goes backwards and its a very important factor in fruit size. As long as your roots are strong then I think the plant after the pumpkin is part of what can help push the fruit. It would detract from the pumpkin only if the total nutrients available were set to a finite limit? Even then the mobile nutrients could still move backwards, I think.

I think I've gotten slightly better results sometimes dead-ending, but only because various soil deficiencies meant there were not enough nutrients to grow both the plant and the pumpkin.

7/7/2019 12:05:23 AM

Lloydminster/AB

I lop mine off 6’ past my chosen fruit. All my best fruit have come from that method. Seems to make for a strong sink.

7/7/2019 12:42:55 AM

Ontario, Canada

I use to terminate the main after the pumpkin, but changed that thought after talking to many HH about their growth patterns. Now the main is allowed to grow till season's end if possible.

7/7/2019 6:39:21 AM

Watlington, UK

Auxin is made at the growing tip. If you chop the end of the growing tip off, then the plant will make less auxin. This will result in more leafy growth because there will be more cytokinin than auxin. So if all the growing tips are chopped ie secondaries & tertiaries, then there won't be much auxin at all. This can only mean that growth energy will be directed to the fruit. However, if the fruit is the only sink, then it can be too much for the plant to handle, so leaving a few vines growing makes sense.

7/7/2019 6:41:45 AM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Joe, we have always dead headed near or at the pumpkin and have grown our largest pumpkins that way (like Jane & Phil) but now that we have a much larger space to grow in, we will be allowing the main to continue to grow, as long as it does not cause any issues with vine stress or pumpkin placement.

I’ve seen too many growers lose pumpkins because they did not train the main vine far enough away from the fruit, causing vine and stem stress. New or inexperienced growers are best to terminate right after the pumpkin, as long as the rest of the plant is big enough to push the pumpkin along.

My PB of 1124 lbs was grown with terminated main vine at the pumpkin and my wife’s PB of 1126 lbs was also grown with main vine terminated at the pumpkin. Perhaps this is why we are stuck at the 1100 lb range, but time will tell now that we can grow both ways.

7/7/2019 10:14:31 AM

Plainville, Connecticut 06062

My two sense is to not cut the main past the pumpkin if at all possible! Mother Nature I believe intended the plant to produce pumpkins and to give them there best shot to grow with as big a plant that would grow in the space provided. Not to say that you can’t grow a big pumpkin on a small plant because many growers have done so just take a look at the 150 square foot contest! Here is a prime example of why you should leave the main attached past the pumpkin. In 2016 I grew the 2145 McMullen seed. On August 8TH the main about four foot from the pumpkin split in two different places splits were length wise each and about 12 inches long and the main became filled with water so the main was terminated at about four feet from the pumpkin leaving me about four of my shortest secondaries and about a 15 foot of main beyond the pumpkin with approximately a half dozen secondaries attached. I taped the pumpkin OTT at 364 inches on August 8TH for 1,057 pounds by the old chart. It was taped ten days later at 377 inches for 1,162 pounds and a 13 inch OTT gain. I watered what was left of the plant on a daily basis and foilar sprayed it with several products I was using that Year. When cut and weighed on the 18TH it weighed 1,240 pounds and won a non sanctioned early weighoff. I am quite sure without the main past the pumpkin it would not have gained the additional 13 inches OTT. One last example in 2015 I went on a great ride with one good one I had going and when finished in late September and the main vine cut before and after the stem here is what I found and observed: The main prior to the pumpkin showed an old inner vine that appeared to be done with its intended function no dripping liquid! The main past the pumpkin still showed some vibrancy green healthy looking with liquid dripping. That pumpkin only gained about 50 pounds the last two weeks of September but which end do you think furnished that liquid for those 50 pounds? You cut the main no chance for gain.

7/7/2019 12:09:41 PM

Grittyville, WA

Interesting comments.

7/7/2019 12:34:15 PM

Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Thank you everyone for your comments and ideas. It’s great to have other growers experiences
. Very cool!

Again thanks!

7/7/2019 6:47:16 PM

North Pole,Alaska

I had a similar experience to pooh-bear last year. On the day after pollination I noticed the main had completely severed about 4 feet from the pumpkin from stem rot. I lost 50% of the plant and 70% of the roots and still hit 550.5 lbs.
The sink -source relationship is distance related far more than direction related. Although the pathway mechanisms are fairly well understood, the strength to distance parameters vary with the health of the plant and current environmental conditions both above and below ground. We may, therefore, never have a nice tidy, definitive answer as to how far out to terminate secondaries and main ( if at all), but this is the right place to narrow down good rules of thumb from those with a history of success.

7/7/2019 7:23:27 PM