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Nottingham, UK

I have 1290 Poirier x 1107 Zunino growing and since the plant only has about 80 sq ft of root space and will not grow a giant I thought it would be fun to grow it on its blossom end and try for a nice round fruit.

Any tips or advice I need to make it happen?

Cheers

7/21/2014 4:40:12 AM

Hinckley MN

keep lots of vine space. a really deep and tight s curve. I think of it as a "fruit loop" because I try to make mine like a loop, or more acurately, bight of rope. The length of the loop needs to be twice the eventual height of the fruit. if the fruit will be 3 ft high, the bight needs to be nearly 6 ft, which means 12 ft of vine, unless you terminate at the fruit.

7/21/2014 10:57:56 AM

Johnston, R.I.

I have one plant that I will try growing on blossom, seems you need to cut a hole in a piece of styrafoam to make a space for the blossom. I will also terminate vine at pumpkin.Vince Zunino seems to have this down pretty good.

7/21/2014 6:14:46 PM

Nottingham, UK

Got an email from Vince and here's what he had to say incase anyone else is thinking of having a go:

First of all, I have to warn you - it ain't easy.

My first suggestion is to remove the main vine about a foot after the pumpkin. As the pumpkin grows this will become very difficult to manage if you don't just get rid of it. I first use a 1 gallon pot to support the main and let the pumpkin hang down into the pot to get the stem orientation straight up. Then I cut a 2.5" hole in the center of a 30" square piece of plywood. When the fruit becomes too big for the pot I place the pumpkin blossom stub in the hole and rest it in the center of the plywood. I place 4 bricks under the plywood so that air can get to the blossom stub and help keep it dry. As the pumpkin grows the blossom stub should suck up out of the hole. Be sure to keep it as dry as possible around and under the plywood.

The rest of the trick is to brace the vine with stakes and adjust everything so that the pumpkin and stem is always oriented correctly as it grows and there some slack in the vine so it doesn't distort everything.

7/21/2014 7:23:19 PM