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Monrovia,CA

I'm reading in Don's new book about vine patterns: Christmas tree, flag, wishbone,etc. and want to try the Xmas tree pattern for next year. Your main comes out in a straight line and the secondaries are all perpendicular to this. Cool. But the few AG's I've observed also have 2 or 3 other 'primary' vines in addition to the main. Are these removed altogether or are they treated like secondaries to the main and trained out at 90 degrees?
Thanks in advance!
Michelle

9/21/2003 5:16:33 PM

treated like secondaries.

9/21/2003 5:20:00 PM

Monrovia,CA

ty!

9/21/2003 8:06:30 PM

Syracuse, NY

of course it all depends on what works for you, what your patch is shaped like and so on....in the Christmas tree, there is only ONE MAIN, and for the sake of distinction anything else can be called
'back secondary' or 'side secondary', etc., but concerning the Christmas tree, only ONE main vine, secondaries no longer than 16 feet, buried as much as possible, and in back of the main stump, there should not be any additional growth...it should look like a Christmas tree that has fallen over, hence the name.. .i tried the 'cut off every other secondary' technique on 1 of my 845s---indeed, the leaves did get HUGE to make up for the loss of the others! it was neat-o. too bad i have a problem throughout my patches this year with rotting from the inside-out.......'pal

9/22/2003 7:50:05 PM

Monrovia,CA

Hmmm, I've been thinking of the removal of every other vine as well for next year. Might eliminate some of the PM troubles. My main mistake this year was letting a couple of the large secondaries take off behind the stump...probably could of had more than one pumpkin. I'd like to fit two vines in next season. Has anyone here tried the 'wishbone' pattern?

Michelle

9/23/2003 4:01:40 PM

Syracuse, NY

i am not yet to that part of the book.
okay i confess, it is so well-written, i am still reading the table of contents! lol

9/24/2003 6:25:38 PM