From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Norfolk, UK

Returning to the plant after 5 days, main vine kinked, cracked on laying down. Dang!

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryView.asp?season=2016&grower=66025&action=L

There's more that could have been potentially done to lay down - and from what I've seen here, the crack will gnarl but any final weight could be less than it could have been.

Lets say lesson learnt there.

An exacerbating factor tho. Is that it's a south facing slope, with the vine running downhill on the N S line(slope = 5 or 6 degrees). Which means vine heads up, ground goes down and the distance to lay gets larger as it reaches out.

A couple of questions:
1. is this potentially just an issue just in this first lay down as growth so aggressive? Or all the way downhill? (Don't remember this being an issue last year...)

2.In future years is it worth running the plant in a different direction. Eg, on the N-S line, vine heading north but directly uphill rather than down? Or across slope E-W or vice versa?

Thanks

6/3/2016 1:17:23 PM

Upa Creek, MO

Hopefully Norm chimes in as he grows on hills. Check out his past diaries - abbynormal is the name.

Also kinks are fairly common, not desired but juices are still flowing. 1k plus have been grown without a stump all together so you're okay with a kink.

6/3/2016 2:56:00 PM