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Issaquah, WA

Something happened and the main vine was terminated on our 1102 Huydic #1 plant about 12ft out before we had a female. The plant is still big and healthy for our smaller patch(<500 sq.ft. for 2 plants) and we have 2 sets on separate side vines. The 7/2 pollination is on a sidevine about halfway down and is at 144 OTT(est. 82lbs) at 23DAP. The 7/5 pollination is on the last sidevine before the main terminated and is at 128.5 OTT(est. 64lbs) at 20DAP. This last side vine is not really a new main either as no tertiaries are grown off of it due to crowding with our other plant.

We were hoping to have a clear winner so a cull would be easy. They have similar growth rates and both look to be on pace for ~400lbs I would say. Not bad for our small patch but we had hoped for larger numbers and a somewhat larger one is growing not too far away on our other plant.

Here is a comparison of the OTT growth rates:
DAP 7/2P 7/5P
15 - 84
16 - 96
17 100 103
18 108.5 111.5
19 117 120.5
20 123.5 128.5
21 130.5
22 138.5
23 144

Keeping 2 sets on the main seems to be a no-no. Because ours are on separate side vines can we still expect to see a nice increase in growth after we cull down to 1? Or does the plant feed these sidevine fruit differently and would the removal of 1 really change the growth rate of the remaining pumpkin that much? We would hate to cull one and then not see the growth rate change on the other one.

Here is a link to the photos and table in our diary:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryView.asp?season=2013&grower=54607&action=L


Any and all thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

7/26/2013 6:45:59 AM

Germany

- You don´t know if one of them might go heavy and one might go light (such things can happen with pumpkins on the same plant)!
- You probably don´t know which one of them might be more likely to die because of a split.
- Last year I had two pumpkins on my 1349 Sherwood plant, one on the main and one on the first secondary. The one on the main had a stem end split, and I removed it, but this did not increase growth of the other pumpkin too much, probably because they had been far away from each other.
- Last year the guys of "Team Heavy East" had two pumpkins on one plant (1370 Rose, see pic here: http://crazy-growers.de/userpix/298_the2_1.jpg ) because it was a double-viner, and the pumpkins grew almost as big as their other big pumpkins had been last year (the two 1370 Rose fruit: 944 and 1078 lbs, vs. pumpkins grown on other plants one fruit each: 1154 lbs on 1466 Jutras, 924 lbs on 469 Mitschke, 822 on 631 Jaser), and therefore I think a plant can deal with more than one fruit.

Well, if you want to go for a new PB then the additional 10 or 15% fruit growth (that´s what I would expect as additional growth) might be worth a cull, but if you prefer to be on the safe side to at least have a nice pumpkin to take to the weigh-off, then try to let them grow.

7/26/2013 7:13:39 AM

Upa Creek, MO

I also have 2 pollinated on sides after a terminated main. One is on a strong secondary with a severe stem split into the vine over 8 inches. The other is younger, on a weaker vine and has a "r" shaped short stem that will most likely cause issues later.

Many have told me to keep both so I can get one to a weighoff, but that's not how I roll. lol, knife will be out to get one soon. There is a separate site called littlepumkins.com for keeping both. All in Jack.

7/26/2013 8:06:33 AM

Upa Creek, MO

I just made my decision and went with the younger one. I do believe you can grow two 500 pounders easily or bigger on one plant, but if you have a limiting factor (your patch size) as I do (4-5 hours of light\day), I think going with one is the way to go even if it is a 400 vs a 500 pound pumpkin. As I said before many experienced growers told me to keep both. It's a big risk to cull, but my last words someday will probably be "hey man, watch this" so take this with grain of salt.

7/26/2013 6:23:27 PM