| Madman Marc |
Colorado Hail, CO. Elev. 5,900 FT
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First off, I apologize to all growers I have not been in contact with this summer. It's been hell here...literally too... with the drought and heat Colorado has had.
This is the 4th season of the cloning experiment. Officially I am propagating pumpkins, not cloning plants from DNA, for the record! Everyone thinks I do not know the difference. I use the term "clone" because the propagated pumpkin plants are identical to the plants from which they are cut from, so if the shoe fits...
The 746 Scherber clone, did not make it through the winter to grow a third season. I had them in a mini greenhouse, and in spring the timer malfunctioned, and did not turn off the heater on a warm spring day, frying everything. I did have a 563 Geerts clone growing in the house bay window though. That is the only clone I had to experiment with this summer.
Growers wondered if a clone could ever establish a stump or main root like a regular plant. My goal this season was to find a method which could produce a main root from an actual starting point. The plant is in 100 SF, it has a fruit at 86 circumference at day 31, that is good for a plant with 80 or so leaves. Getting a clone to do this is simple. I planted the clone from the pot straight into the garden, and allowed it to begin vine growth. Once it produced its first large leaf, I dug down 6 inched and buried just that leaf node. I allowed the plant to vine out about 3-4 feet from that point before burying any other leaf nodes [about 4 to 6 leaves]. Once the plant reached 10 feet, I cut off the original vine right before the rooted new stump area and pulled out the original indoor potted plant. The plant was treated like a normal plant there after. I did allow side vines [main secondaries] to grow initially, but also didn't bury them until they grew out 3-4 feet from the "stump" area.
"Madman" Marc Sawtelle
Colorado Springs
Colorado
Marc
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9/15/2002 3:52:35 PM
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