The management of giant pumpkin vines is a time consuming but important process. Managing the vines helps your giant pumpkin plant perform at it’s best. This will involve burying vines on a daily basis if you are wanting to get the biggest pumpkin you can.
The management of the vines can be broken into two main areas.
- Burying of the vines
- Vine pattern
When both of these areas are done well you will have a pumpkin plant that is utilising it’s growing space well.
Vine Growth
In the early stages of growth the pumpkin plant is going to put out vines as fast as it can. Your job in this early stage is to train them to be in the pattern you desire.
These vines and roots are the main source of nutrition and growth for the pumpkin. Filling the area is what you are aiming for.
As the main vine and side vines coming off the main grow outwards you can train their direction by placing crossed over bamboo stakes to help keep the vine in place.
Only do this to vines that are already flat on the ground. A lot of the time the ends of vines can be raised into the air. You risk snapping the ends of the vines if stakes are used too close to the ends.
Vine Burying
As the plant is growing out, this is when you want to bury the vines.
Bury the vines at each leaf axil. This is where the leaf comes off the vine. It may also
At this stage of the the pumpkin life, vine burying and pruning will keep you busy every day as the vines start spreading out across the patch at a great rate of speed.
There are different strategies to how to have your pumpkin plant forming in the patch, but the main idea is to have a root system that is as large as possible behind the pumpkin
Burying the vine
As the vine grows out burying of the vine can occur. Burying it where the leaf forms on the vine helps anchor the plant and prevent damage from wind by making it another anchor point on the plant, any new growth from these points should be pinched off.
How to help train the vine
To help train the vine to go where you want it to go the use of small bamboo stake criss crossed over the plant will keep it in the right direction. As the plant grows further out and is contact with the ground the stakes can be removed and that part of the plant buried. Dead heading the vine at a predetermined length stops that growth and the plant will focus on the vines it already has.
Diagrams of pruning designs will be put up shortly on the site.