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Applegate, Oregon

I was wondering how many of you used anything other than the Christmas tree, what it was, how you liked it and what you got from it. Also, did any of you have success with more than 1 plant in the same mound/pit, such as back to back or other? Thanks, I am looking to add more plants to my patch and want to see if some of these other methods are worth the effort. Dale

11/3/2003 10:31:32 AM

Montoursville, PA

I think moving the nursery from ends to center or visa versa is more important. This gives some benefit of crop rotation if not perfect for we with few square feet. The second most important thing is a good cover crop and the addition of Gypsum to help clean up salts and presence of small traces of poisons we may be holding.

Any growing pattern that gets about three forths of the leaves growing between the stump and the fruit is making good use of the food factory or the red zone. A little common sense compairing patterns goes a long way. For instance if you are setting fruit on the Christmas Tree at fifteen feet you would then need thirty feet between fruit and stump to equal that using the Flag Pattern.

11/3/2003 11:59:12 AM

Applegate, Oregon

Thanks Doc. I appreciate the patch prep comments... and I pretty well understand the theory you mentioned with regard to the common sense factor of equal amounts of "food factory" regardless of pattern. I was just curious as to the success of the theory in real practice. Mostly though, I am wondering how many people were able to grow giants with two plants back to back. Dale

11/3/2003 12:44:32 PM

Cornwall UK.(50N 5W)300ft.

I planted back to back this year not sure if you'd class them as giants.
Planting back to back means I only need 2 small hoophouses instead of 4 would like to move from centre to ends next year though for the reasons Doc already mentioned.

11/3/2003 1:04:16 PM

Kenyon, Mn.

Good Grief! I'm so confused, I have never had a Giant; however I have never pruned. The largest one that I ever have grown developed on the primary vine and it was the third fruit to set, which I chose to use, and it had at least 75% of the leaves between the stump and the fruit, so obviously I have allot to learn, can anyone email me with some diagrams? Thanx,

11/3/2003 5:32:11 PM

Montoursville, PA

In my diary there is a grafic showing how I used the flag and Christmas Tree this year. I planted face to fact about six feet apart. The graph shows all.

11/3/2003 9:25:10 PM

[email protected]

There are vine training diagrams in the "how to" section of this website from the home page.

11/3/2003 9:31:03 PM

Saegertown Pa.

I grew my 1157 on a flag it only had 170 sq feet to 200 sq feet from stump to pumpkin. You don't necessarily need a lot behind the pumpkin when you go to a small plant, just my opinion.

11/4/2003 9:03:39 AM

Applegate, Oregon

Quinn,

Thanks for the comments. I was checking out your 2003 pumpkins on AGGC, and wow what a great year you had! Most impressive is that every pumpkin grew on a plant less than 400sq ft! Quinn, what was the closest distance between stumps in your patch? Any in the same pit? Thanks a lot. I am planning my layout so I can workout my water system for next season. I am looking to go with 12 plants next year, and 8 of those will have 500 sq ft christmas trees if planted back to back. Dale

11/4/2003 9:57:32 AM

In the shade - PDX, OR

Yeah nice job Quinn!


As for your 1157 I think that is one of the orangest 845 Bobier progeny out there & on a Flag too?!
Great stuff & thanks for sharing.

11/4/2003 1:49:36 PM

Saegertown Pa.

Gluteous
I didn't plant any of my plants back to back. 9 to 10 feet was my closest from stump to pumpkin. and yes they were all less than 400 sq feet.

11/5/2003 5:48:34 AM