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Hastings, ON

Hi everyone! One of my plants has bitten the dust and I'm still 2 weeks away from my local weigh in. What would you suggest to do to best preserve the pumpkin so it makes it to the fair? Do I keep it on the vine despite the lack of leaves or do I cut it off the vine and store it elsewhere? The vine still seems OK and I'm still water it daily, but 80% of the leaves have died off. Thank you in advance for your help!

9/18/2018 11:11:10 PM

west central IN/East central IL

If vine is fine I'd leave it.check the main and water, you should be fine.

9/18/2018 11:33:32 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

If the weather is hot, keep it shaded. But if you have some leaves and a good vine, leaving it on will keep it from drying out and losing weight. Make sure it is protected from critters. At that stage about everything likes to eat them.

9/19/2018 5:28:16 AM

San Jose

I have the same situation---just water the healthy main,
and also water any healthy secondaries?

9/19/2018 10:58:17 PM

Walhalla, ND.

The main will still pump nutrients. My first year growing when season was over I cut the main off at the stump leaving about a foot of the stump sticking out. It continually dripped so I put a quart jar under it. Every day the jar was filled. This went on for about a week.

9/19/2018 11:35:00 PM

San Jose

Hobbit, should I water secondaries also?

9/20/2018 2:09:21 PM

Walhalla, ND.

I would check everything real close, if all your vines look good, in other words there isn’t any rot going on especially with the main vine. And no diseases that could affect the pumpkin I don’t see why not.

9/20/2018 3:50:57 PM

San Jose

Thanks Hobbit, I'm on a small 240 sq ft backyard patch, so my growing season is shortened, and in San Jose powdery mildew is horrible, so both contribute to a shorter growing
season---I'll double the check the main---I think it's good.
Kurt

9/20/2018 11:08:43 PM

Upa Creek, Mo

Same here, I'm skipping our weighoff to do something at a school end of October and trying to hold on till close to then. My pkn will be 120 DAP when I cut it. All the original leaves are gone, but the vines are all good and throwing out clusters of new leaves I am just letting go freely. I keep watering and check density\health of vine by giving it a squeeze. Still checking for frass, and I also make sure all the roots are still rooted and active.

9/21/2018 8:24:15 AM