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Nh

In years past I have more often than not kept all my secondary's. This year my plan was to cut every other one. My approach for doing this was to let all secondary's grow some and to prune every other one as they began to intrude on its neighbor. My thinking was that keeping these "soon to be cut" secondary's a little longer, instead of nipping them in the bud, would contribute to the over all growth rate of the plant. The problem now is that im gun shy or snip shy and wondering if cutting these fairly mature secondary's will stress the plant or help it. sorry for the long winded post. any suggestions?

7/8/2015 8:17:03 AM

Eganville, Ontario

Personally, I want more secondaries, not less. I don't know about stressing the plant, but I wonder what kind of fruit output you're going to get later in the year with only half as many secondaries.

7/8/2015 9:00:56 AM

Stanwood, Washington

Why in the world would you want to cut your secondaries off? I don't know why you would want less leaves and less roots on your plant. You only have a limited time before your pumpkin sets for the plant to get big enough to support a pumpkin. If you cut half your secondaries off it will take you twice as long to get the same size plant.

7/8/2015 11:13:37 AM

Colorado

If you thin your secondaries do it when theyre small buds.Dont cut them if you let them develop. You can pinch the tips of some if you want more juice to go to the main vine.

7/8/2015 11:47:17 AM

Muddy Waters

Yes keep your secondaries in less you have monster leafs and the secondary's are like 10 inchs apart.Then it might be overcrowded??

7/8/2015 3:55:09 PM

Nh

thank you all. FWI..many people cut every other secondary and grow very large pumpkins. I have observed this personally and there is no apparent piece of evidence that means one way is right and the other is not. space between secondary's means bigger leaves. Not cutting any secondary's means more congestion and leaves perhaps of a smaller size. Since I have started growing these things, I know one thing for sure, If you do most things right, size of plant means less than all the rest!

7/8/2015 7:58:44 PM

East Jordan, MI

I agree with the others on this thread.

The leaves are the food factory, and each leaf has a tap root, so more leaves and more roots is my target. Additionally, the leaves shade the ground keeping it cooler, which is a must in our area, so any space that is not shaded has a chance to damage the roots in that area.

I have never seen (personally, or in a picture) anyone that cuts every other leaf, but like you said, there is more than one way to grow these plants and the only way we learn is to try new things.

Good luck.

7/8/2015 8:34:46 PM

South Hero, VT

Cutting every other secondary was popular about 10 years ago.

Jim Beauchemin touted it in his video.

http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Growing-Champion-Giant-Pumpkins/dp/B000F41WS0

7/8/2015 9:26:38 PM

Central Illinois

I have wondered about flag pattern, how do these plants average up to the christmas tree.

By letting them grow for a short time your wasting energy then your chopping it off just as it is producing energy, so remove it when they are tiny , if your going too.

7/9/2015 8:13:18 AM