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I am a 2nd year grower, with last year hardly involving any effort which led me to 154 lbs. This year I really want to actually try and grow something big.I found some articles on the internet that say to bury the whole vine completly.( main and secondaries) and I found some that say to bury only at the leaf nodes. which one is true?

3/27/2013 3:13:55 PM

Germany

If you live in an area where squash vine borers could cause troubles, you probably better bury the whole vine. In any other case, it is just important to have some soil around the leaf nodes to assist with the development of the additional tap roots (especially the 2nd root which emerges from the top side of the leaf node). Anyway, vines buried or not, 154 lbs isn´t the result of exposed vines (unless vine borers have damaged your plant very early). With many other parameters pointing at optimum you should still be able to grow a multiple of that weight without any vine buried.
- soil test! (got one? yes: then get your mineral levels balanced and pH adjusted, if necessary. no: get one.)
- patch design and plant pattern (does your soil allow for the plant to root down to a depth of 1 ft? Does your plant spot allow for the plant to root into all directions for at least 12 ft?)
- date of pollination (should be in June or maybe first week of July in order to take advantage of the long days during peak growth of your pumpkin)
- probably many other things I could mention here...won´t do that, just wanna make you aware that the "buried or not?" question probably won´t be the major contributor to the success of your 2013 season, just some kind of spice. But what´s the nice spice if the whole soup is too salty? or too cold? or made of the ingredients you don´t like?
Good you asked right now, it´ll give you some time for planning ahead, for making some good strategies for multi-component optimization of your 2013 pumpkin season. You can grow a seriously big one...go ahead, good luck!

3/27/2013 3:41:14 PM

Deerfield, Michigan

Pumpking always has great advice. Read as much as you can and enjoy 2013.

3/27/2013 7:04:51 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

I only bury at the leaf nodes not the whole vine. Main and secondaries both included. If you are using a good insecticide like a bifenthrin and merit combo you should not need to bury the whole vine. More vine underground equals more disease pressure.

3/27/2013 10:27:39 PM

South Bloomfield, Ohio

If you bury vines ONLY to encourage rooting, it is only necessary to bury or cover at each leaf node. In my case, I bury the whole vine to minimize wind damage as best I can. I also find it much easier to trench ahead of the growing vine and apply amendments into the trench before burying.

3/27/2013 11:00:42 PM

Michigan,up North

sounds like my first year growen,with ebay seeds and not haveing a tiller,i didnt till the ground up and only grew a 150.are you tillin the ground?

3/28/2013 5:54:46 AM

Germany

MichMash, I guess your question was directed to AtGi, and therefore I don´t try to attempt answering that question, but just want to comment that this might have been the reason. It is important to know that you don´t need to till your soil, but you need to losen your soil in some kind of way. A tiller is a great help when it comes to getting amendments mixed into the soil. Most tillers, however, losen your soil only down to a depth of 1/2 ft. Getting some "deeper" soil is great, but you need to achieve this goal by different methods. Either plowing (or subsoiling) prior to tilling, or some hard work with a broadfork or a spade(fork) could do the trick. If you are on low budget and can´t afford to buy or to hire a tiller, if you just want to grow on a little patch, then get a spade, a spade fork and a rake. Before your season starts you should go through the patch with your spade (3/4 ft deep should be easily possible), add some amendments (whatever is needed...dolomite, SulPoMag, compost etc.), work them in with your spade fork (1/2 ft deep) and mix everything with a rake. Some weeks or months later, when you start growing your plant in your patch, losen the soil in a maybe 7 x 7 ft square, which then should accommodate the little plant (and maybe a hoophouse...in this case the dug around area should be at least as large as the hoophouse, if this exceeds 7 x 7 ft), and then during the season you losen more and more soil with your spade fork as the plant grows (always try to be at least 3-4 ft ahead of plant growth, because the roots are already longer than the vines and you don´t want to damage them).

3/28/2013 6:15:33 AM

Germany

...and as to eBay seeds: I grew my 907 Wagler 11 (which was my 2011 PB) from seeds bought on eBay, but the important thing was that I bought them from the grower, I knew the cross of the seeds. Don´t try to get something great out of noname seeds, they could be open pollinations with pollinators such as buttercup squash etc., and you might end up with little pumpkins on large plants despite various efforts spent on patch prep and plant care.

3/28/2013 6:19:26 AM

Michigan,up North

i been burying main ,sides vines for the last 2 years ,i did uncover the mains last year looking for svb dmg.i havent had any vine rot,so iam goin to keep bury the whole vines.It takes alota work to get a big one ,seance i started putin in the work my size went up ,fall prep i do 15 ,4X8 TRailer loads of leaves ,i shred them up and tillem in,i get those from the county drop off.guy last year was lookin at me wit a dumb look,loadem up .he walk over and said he never seen someone loaden leaves up this is a drop off.i exeplain to him so he started droping off to my house.then i do a load of cow poop ,till it in ,i did chinkin last fall.tryed sumthing diffient.then i spay a half gallon of molasses and call it good.i would of added some gypsum and lime butt was runing low on funds.ill add that this spring when i till.

3/28/2013 6:47:21 AM

Michigan,up North

U have good advice pumpking,was given my 2cents ,lol

3/28/2013 6:55:31 AM

Michigan,up North

These plants do put out some impressive roots,last year decided to till 3 foot away from the plant .were i was walking and packin down the dirt ,saw i was tillin roots up ,wont do that again.goin to put out walking boards this year

3/28/2013 7:01:04 AM

Piqua, Ohio

Try snow shoes for soil compaction, mine work pretty good. I bury my vines for wind protection.

3/28/2013 11:40:32 PM

Stanwood, Washington

I water from above and have found that if I just cover the nodes that the soil washes away when I water. I actually dig a trench for the whole vine to lay in and cover the whole thing. It does seem logical that this would increase the chance for disease. I have seen other growers who bury the nodes and then once the top tap root has developed and headed down into the soil they wash the dirt away. I don't know if this is the best thing todo or not but I have seen it.

4/3/2013 1:46:28 PM