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Maine

This is our third year - granddaughter has a great one going, growing 15# a day, at 187 with 52 days to go....however....we go down to the pumpkin daily, and today there was a slight stress fracture on the stem, and we discovered that the pumpkin grew across the main vine about 2 feet below the stem...and it was pulling on the stem...we made the sad decision to cut it, as the main vine above the stem is loose, and free of tap roots (we're learning!) She lost about 30-40% of her total plant, which sucks. QUESTION: With the remaining 60% plant healthy, and all vines buried in compost, sheltered from sun and foliar fed weekly, will the pumpkin still gain well? Any thoughts/ideas gladly accepted. Just squashed a second bout of squash bugs at the same time, this is getting stressful, as it does every August!! She has about 11 feet of main vine above the stem, very healthy...
Thanks to you all....

8/7/2012 4:32:24 PM

Cedar Lake, IN.

I cut the main vine about 14 inches after the pumpkin about three weeks ago. I did not realize any lost in the weight gains.

8/7/2012 6:26:09 PM

Cedar Lake, IN.

I should have added that I lost about 15 feet of the main vine.

8/7/2012 6:27:41 PM

Midway, UT

It won't gain as fast of course but it should continue to grow. There have been some giant pumpkins grown where everything was lost from the stump to the stem and only the vines after the pumpkin were feeding the pumpkin and the pumpkin still put on another 400 pounds. You have to have a lot of well rooted vines to try to pull something like that off as well as have a good plant and good experience, but the point being that the pumpkin should still grow as long as there is enough plant to power it.

8/7/2012 6:29:04 PM

So. Maine

Hi Anne , if you are saying you had to cut the main vine AFTER ( or downstream ) of the pumpkin ... not to worry ! New vine growth AFTER the pumpkin can use up more nutrients then it provides for the fruit through backfeeding SO if that's what you are saying don't worry it will continue to grow fine . GOOD LUCK ! AL

8/7/2012 10:28:06 PM