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Lewistown,IL

Little background. I won the 2106 Schmit seed in jan. on WWGG so this was going to be my go to seed this year.
I was going to cross it with a kin that went 25% heavy but due to pollination struggles (a lot of aborting) my cross did not make it as the the pollinator for the 2106 got YVD and had to be pulled. The 2106 marched on but could not get a kin to set on the main to save my life. But much later than I wanted it finally set one on a secondary up on the tenth one. Life was good ! (self pollinated)
She cranked right up to around a 1000 then the stump went bad :-( . I was bummed but my goal had been reached :-)....
But my mind got to thinking on how to salvage a bad thing and that is when I had an idea.
I aquired a bottle of root hormone and cut the vine near the stump to good meat applied the root hormone covered it with potting mix infused with WWGG root keeper and cover it with a tote to prevent drying out.
I checked it 3-4 weeks after application and wow the roots are on fire ! Fine roots growing everywhere.
So it may not produce a WR but it salvaged a bad situation and it has since picked up near #300 and is still growing.
The plant looks awesome.
In closing this experiment produced roots vs a rotted vine sucking up bad things and sending it to the pumpkin. Just something to think about if one loses a stump.

9/23/2017 1:05:20 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

I have heard of people terminating secondary vines treating the cut ends with rooting hormone, burying them and getting good roots. Do you have any photos to post?

9/23/2017 7:24:02 PM

Lewistown,IL

No photos yet. I will post pics after kin is terminated for weigh off next week.

9/23/2017 9:32:02 PM

Colorado

You can wash the dirt away with a garden hose (when you check it) to see if the roots are originating off the treated area.

9/23/2017 9:58:50 PM

Central Illinois

Nice experiment , thanks for sharing the information

9/24/2017 8:50:04 AM

Walhalla, ND.

Good thing to know, I lost a stump in early August on one of mine. I cut 4 ft off the main and lost 5 secondaries.

9/24/2017 9:32:31 AM

Grittyville, WA

How about a superficial scrape along the sides or underside of the entire vine, rub rooting hormone on it, and then you would have continuous roots along the whole vine not just at the nodes!? Lol this is one of these ideas that seems so bad that I start to wonder if it might actually work. I don't like to post bad ideas... but I'm sure bad ideas are sometimes at the start of great discoveries.

9/25/2017 4:07:01 AM