From

Location

Message

Date Posted

New York

How many days does it take for the plant to start slowing down after the pumpkin.

7/1/2018 6:56:24 AM

Germany

Well, it depends.

7/1/2018 7:01:26 AM

New York

I pollinated one as my backup today at 8 ft with 11 secondaries behind it ( I had to cut off four). I have the one I want to keep landing at around 12 ft. I don’t want to have the plant slow down and make that pollination very late. My plant has 4 sidevines at about 4 ft and a couple more at 3,2,1.

7/1/2018 7:01:48 AM

Germany

That´s the summary, but here´s a bit of an explanation: It depends on genetics (sometimes two plants of same size, same age, same stage of fruit development, planted back to back in the same patch show totally different behavior in terms of slowing down vine growth...both main vine and secondaries), it depends on plant size and growth rate of the fruit, it depends on how many secondaries have been terminated, it depends on watering, nutrition, weather etc. etc., which means it could be normal to see the main vine and secondaries close to the fruit slow down about two weeks after pollination, but it may also happen that they keep on growing like crazy for some more weeks.

7/1/2018 7:06:16 AM

Germany

In your particular case I would wait and see, just keep your backup at 8 ft until maybe day 10-15 (assuming that pollination of the one at 12 ft will happen during the next 7 days, you may wish to keep your 8ft-backup until you see that pollination of the one at 12ft was successful, which should be the case around 6 - 8 days after pollination). Then, once you know you want to keep the one at 12 ft, cull the 8 ft backup.

In the meantime, keep record of daily growth of the 8ft fruit, and then compare the development of the 12 ft fruit with those benchmarks. The 12 ft fruit shouldn´t be much slower (the baby at 8ft shouldn´t be withdrawing too much power), these observations shoul help in making the final decision. Also, pay attention to fruit shape, symmetry of the lobes, potential deformations of the flower (e.g., seeds in the flower at 12 ft and perfect flower at 8 ft would be speaking for keeping the 8 ft one).

So far my thoughts. Good Luck!

7/1/2018 7:13:40 AM

New York

Thank you

7/1/2018 7:28:06 AM

Germany

Just another thought (because I´ve had a look into your diary now, to see what the plant looks like), there should be some power coming from the sidevines in order to support further vine growth after pollination. Your plant is currently pretty small, and when keeping the one at 8 ft the plant will most likely support this fruit and stop growing, and your daily gains probably won´t exceed 10 lbs (perhaps you´ll have a 200-300 pounder in fall). I would wait until the plant covers at least 120-150 sqft, with some side vines being already 6 - 8 ft long, even if that means pollination in 10 - 15 days. However, a plant of that size should be capable of supporting both fruit growth and vine growth, you´ll have some young leaves in August/September, peak fruit growth could be a daily 20-25 lbs instead of 10 lbs, and in spite of the later pollination you could still end up with a 400 - 800 pounder (that´s not a promise, that´s just a guess).

7/1/2018 8:40:07 AM

Colorado

Between 15 and 30 days old the pumpkins daily gain ramps up. Sometime during that time the main and close secondaries will slow down. That effect varies a lot from plant to plant.

7/1/2018 4:20:42 PM