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Santa Cruz, CA

We have two pumpkins going on our 1097 Beachy. The first one and the larger, has possibly a stem that won't work as the pumpkin grows. We are pretty new at this, and if you have a chance to look at it and give advice we'd very much appreciate it. The second pumpkin is the second diary site below and the third is the bloosom end of the larger first pumpkin.
Thanks in advance for the help!!!!
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=53783
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=53784
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=53785

7/30/2006 3:25:40 PM

Santa Cruz, CA

I just went and measured the two Beachy pumpkins. The larger one grew 3 and a half inches on day 26 past pollination but the smaller one only grew an inch today. We may need to keep the wild stem one. Any suggestions as to what to do now? What is the best position to move the pumpkin into if possible? Yesterdays OTT was 180" on it. Any tricks to moving the stem away?

7/30/2006 10:13:33 PM

Picton,ON ([email protected])

I have several pumpkins with worse stem issues than this one. It looks like you have pushed the pumpkin back away from the stem and I think it will likley have enough room. If you can work it back a little more, just to give more room. Good luck!
John

7/30/2006 10:22:49 PM

Santa Cruz, CA

So on these curling stem pumpkins is the issue the vines off the stem or the stem itself? I can probably move the vines back but I'm not sure about what to do if the stem needs help.

7/31/2006 5:02:32 PM

Syracuse, NY

wellllll, you sure do have an interesting
array of stem and fruit shape issues, lol....

last year was the peak of it for me, with my 653.5....
(pumpkinpal2 '05 diary, 1076.5 Werner with a jack under it)

anyway, Mother Nature may actually be doing you a small favor, in that since the stem turns sharply DoWnWard
from the fruit, you do not yet need to have your main vine come-up those extra 3 inches that it would need to if the stem were NOT the weigh that it is.
been here, done this.
you have your fruit at a nice, level arrangement,
and the only issue should be that as the fruit continues to grow bigger it will do the same as anyone's, which is
to close-up the gap between the fruit itself and the
vine itself. ummm, i would, however, perhaps cut that
secondary vine that it sticking out of the stem of this pumpkin, (further reducing stem or vine stress) and also the leaf stalk that is attached to it using a sharp box cutter, as long as you will be shading this fruit once the main leaf is gone...
there is no real issue here, and you have sand under the fruit to make it easy to move the fruit if necessary;
henceforth, as long as your tap roots are cut, under the next two or three leaf junctions each way, your main vine
must be moderately slack, and you can carefully use
a wooden stake with a soft cloth or something around it
driven into the ground about 1.5 feet each way from the stem
and up against the vine(s) if you ever need a way to help position the vine(s) any further away from the shoulders of the fruit. just be careful. eric g

7/31/2006 5:51:11 PM