"cwe" wrote in message ...
Hello,

Here's the scenario: I have 3 hills of pumpkins (a mix of
jack-o-lantern and small sugar), 3 plants each, spaced 3-5 feet apart (I
can't tell anymore!). On one side of this row there was about 5 feet before
other vegetables, on the other side there was 5 feet and then open grass.
They were transplanted there around June 1st. Since then they have
proceeded to launch an invasion against every other plant in my garden, the
corn, the tomatoes, and the peas are all under attack.

I put a board up between the pumpkins and the tomatoes, but the damned
things just climbed over it! My question is, can pumpkins be trimmed
without causing harm to the remaining plant? If I trim it on the one
trouble side, will it encourage more growth on the other side where there is
tons of room? Someone has also told me that pumpkins can be trellised, has
anyone ever seen or done this?

Next year, the pumpkins are going out and away from the rest of the
garden.

Thanks,

--- Steve

We have that problem, too. We thought we left plenty of room for the
pie pumpkins this year, but we were wrong. Trimming off the ends of
the vines will send more energy to the remaining pumpkin fruit so that
the pumpkins will grow larger. You will end up with fewer pumpkins,
but they will be bigger.

Another thing we've tried is turning the vines so that they grow in a
different direction, such as along the edge of the garden rather than
covering up anything in their path.

We've never tried growing pumpkins on a trellis, but last year, our
Jack-o-lanterns started climbing the sweet corn. We had pumpkins
(small ones because they were at the end of the vines) hanging in
amongst the sweet corn stalks. I would imagine that if you had a
strong trellis, and it wasn't a very large variety of pumpkin (like
Big Max or Atlantic Giant), it might work to give them a trellis to
climb.

Good luck with your pumpkins.

LeAnn

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