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Cologne / Germany

We see a lot of pumpkins in "Pancake position" blossom end up which in my opinion is a high risk of losing the stem while getting bigger and heavier.
While positioning the pumpkin horizontally from stem to blossom end over weeks, carefully rising the vine, will it have an effect on the final shape, or is this a genetic thing that can´t be influenced?

2/1/2019 4:58:30 AM

Morgantown, WV

Yes, what you are speaking about is precisely how gravity works with your genetics. Genetics will play the overall major role in shape and color, however there are techniques to manage shape within your genetics.

Some "birdbath" or pancake style pumpkins are simply the result of the tap root at the stem never being cut, which pins the shoulders down and causes the bottom to push up and fall backwards.

A true Cinderella pumpkin, in my opinion, should have the stem directly on top, which is a far bigger challenge, but makes all the difference in display. Otherwise, you will answer "Where is the stem?" more times than you care to.

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryView.asp?season=2017&grower=56344&action=L

This is a link to my 2017 Diary. If you scroll down to July, I began a conversation about how I feel gravity affects young pumpkins and what can be done to "manipulate" the end shape of your pumpkin. Hopefully it can answer some of your questions in pictures.

Cinderella style pumpkins are incredibly difficult for a number of reasons, but in my opinion, worth the effort if you can get it to the finish line. People's eyes light up when a squat little chunker shows up!

Annaid Tecuod (Mr. Zunnio) is the original master of manipulation. His older diaries are a bit tough to find now, but worth some digging. He's the first that I know of to really push the limit on shape, and has done so in very innovative ways.

2/1/2019 7:47:31 AM

Cologne / Germany

Thank you, I will check out the links you gave.

What I tried in the past was using 2 thick stakes on the stem side with foam mats on the "back shoulders" to keep the pumpkin from "flipping over" and stay horizontally towards the blossom end while rising the vine. Would have taken 2 other stakes in front and two ropes to fix it.

Unfortunately this ended before I got results due to critters and rotting in early stage (not related to my experiment, it happened at night, anyway...)

2/1/2019 1:45:26 PM

Colorado

Floh I think its both. I think you can keep quite a few manageable by keeping them level for the first 20 days and others it seems like they don t want to play fair. A level resting surface sure helps.

2/10/2019 5:14:19 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

You try to keep the stem and blossom parallel to the ground if possible. Then encourage equal growth, by letting the pumpkin slide on your bed of san on the grow mat. Sometimes no matter what you do, they do what they want, and grow in to a wheel, grow over their blossom.

2/11/2019 8:26:13 PM