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Germany

Hi there, we´ve had heaps of rain the last couple of days (while it was quite cool), and I noticed that on my Wittmann plant a pumpkin (ca. 10 cm diameter) produced a very long and deep split along the entire stem. It did not reach into the fruit (not yet), but it is frustrating to see this little guy die (probably). I suspect that the sudden load of water together with the low temperatures had caused this split. Now I was wondering if some "buffer fruit" some feet earlier on the main could have helped buffer the load of water, i.e., to make the pumpkin grow slowly within the first two weeks of its life. Does anybody of you work with such a "buffer fruit strategy", i.e., to simply pollinate everything on the main (lets say from 8 feet on), just to remove them as soon as the keeper (lets say at 14 feet) is 2 weeks old and in the right condition of both stem and fruit for extremely rapid growth without splits? Thanks alot in advance for you comments and suggestions.

7/5/2011 3:50:56 PM

Rhode Island

sometimes stem splits can happen, even with no pressure from a tight main,a great angle of pumpkin stem off main,etc.make sure there are no pressure points causing the split???

usually its the blossom end that will blow from excess growth while the stem end of fruit can make it because the fruit is thicker in that area.

some stems also split into three pieces and continue to grow all season without ever entering the fruit.

buffer fruit will not help in the case of stem splits.

7/6/2011 5:21:34 AM

Germany

Thanks pap for the encouraging words of stems split into three pieces and fruits will continue to grow. Indeed, this fruit did continue to grow, and the oh so bad splits did dry and haven´t entered the fruit yet. Now, after one and half week, this particular pumpkin was the best on that plant, I´ve culled plan-B and plan-C (which also had developed stem splits, in addition to some inherent further disadvantageous features...splits in vine or worse location on a secondary). I´ll keep fingers crossed that this pumpkin on the 924 Wittmann plant will continue for the next two months without troubles (the only troubles accepted will be "HOUSE TOO SMALL!").

7/17/2011 1:45:10 PM