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Woburn, Ma

Okay, Here we go.. another question about secondaries. I have a secondary that started about 4' out on my main. A pumpkin is growing very well (about 4' out on it.) This secondary is probably 25' long. I have another secondary that started 1' after this one on the main. It is also about 25' long with nothing growing on it. My main is about 30' long with nothing growing on it either. Everything aborted because of the heat and humidity. I don't know whether I should get rid of the other secondary or if I should cut it and the main at a certain distance out. They both are still healthy but I just am not certain if they might be draining the growth on the first secondary. I never intended to keep the pumpkin on the first secondary so the vine position wasn't considered. I recently had to cut most of the tap roots on it to relieve the pressure against it. The leafs have now fallen but they are still healthy. I don't know if they still will be a week from now? I'm wonderin if I should cut the length on this now. I'm inclined to just let everthing keep growing. I didn't mean to make a book out of this question! I would just like to know what some of you would do in this situation. Thanks.... Blaine

8/23/2005 9:07:55 PM

Sioux Falls, SD [email protected]

I don't think existing vine is a drain on growth. . .but I'd stop further growth by snipping all tips off.

8/23/2005 9:15:59 PM

Midwest

Blaine:

I've been advised to terminate secondaries with no or slow pumpkins and to NOT terminate secondaries WITH pumpkins. It seems to work well. I have eight secondaries, six are terminated and they all have pumpkins but those aren't the fastest growing ones. The last two un-terminated secondaries have pumpkins that are much bigger than those on the other vines. These aggressive ones were similar in age/size to the pumpkins on the terminated vines. I say, go ahead and terminate that secondary, don't chop it off short. Save all those leaves for making sugars for your pumpkin. Let us know what you decide.
Greg

8/25/2005 2:46:57 PM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

We have one plant that lost the pumpkin on the main to a vine borer. It had 2 on secondaries that we kept. I had to terminate one of the secondaries because the fruit was growing right on top of it and nearly pulling the stem off. The other secondary was allowed to grow. Both are about the same size and growing at about the same rate. It didn't seem to matter on this plant.

8/25/2005 6:06:42 PM