On our national gardening show (on ABC tv) Peter Cundall was talking
about pumpkins, and said growers should not to be reluctant to pinch
off the tips of long runners, this forces side runners to grow and it
is these side runners that bear the female flowers. So you will have
more pumpkins if you pinch off the tips of the main runners.

Anyone heard of this before?

Note: Americans would refer to these as "winter squash", I think.
--
John Savage (Australia) (my news address is not valid for email)

g'day john,

yes i've heard pete say that on other occassions and also been told by
other gardeners.

does it work?

well not for me least wise i did all that tip pruning and got hardly
any fruit.

so now let them grow rampant, don't even do the hand pollination thing
anymore and end up with more fruit than we can eat.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

my e/mail addies have spam filters you should know what to delete before you send.

g'day john,

yes i've heard pete say that on other occassions and also been told by
other gardeners.

does it work?

well not for me least wise i did all that tip pruning and got hardly
any fruit.

so now let them grow rampant, don't even do the hand pollination thing
anymore and end up with more fruit than we can eat.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

my e/mail addies have spam filters you should know what to delete before you send.

old trick, i do that all them time, it works

"John Savage" wrote in message
om...
On our national gardening show (on ABC tv) Peter Cundall was talking
about pumpkins, and said growers should not to be reluctant to pinch
off the tips of long runners, this forces side runners to grow and it
is these side runners that bear the female flowers. So you will have
more pumpkins if you pinch off the tips of the main runners.

Anyone heard of this before?

Note: Americans would refer to these as "winter squash", I think.
--
John Savage (Australia) (my news address is not valid for email)

John Savage wrote:
On our national gardening show (on ABC tv) Peter Cundall was talking
about pumpkins, and said growers should not to be reluctant to pinch
off the tips of long runners, this forces side runners to grow and it
is these side runners that bear the female flowers. So you will have
more pumpkins if you pinch off the tips of the main runners.

Anyone heard of this before?

Note: Americans would refer to these as "winter squash", I think.

Yes, it is a practice which Peter has been advocating for many years.
But the success of this lies in pinching runners only when they have
reached a certain length - and I don't remember what this length should
be (I have a feeling that it has to do with the runner having 3 side
runners before you pinch it but I wouldn't quote me on this).

I think the same applies to cucumbers.

Cheers.

--
Sound that shatters silence is called noise. Sound that enhances silence
is called music.

Basil Chupin wrote:
John Savage wrote:

On our national gardening show (on ABC tv) Peter Cundall was talking
about pumpkins, and said growers should not to be reluctant to pinch
off the tips of long runners, this forces side runners to grow and it
is these side runners that bear the female flowers. So you will have
more pumpkins if you pinch off the tips of the main runners.

Anyone heard of this before?

Note: Americans would refer to these as "winter squash", I think.


Yes, it is a practice which Peter has been advocating for many years.
But the success of this lies in pinching runners only when they have
reached a certain length - and I don't remember what this length should
be (I have a feeling that it has to do with the runner having 3 side
runners before you pinch it but I wouldn't quote me on this).

I think the same applies to cucumbers.

Cheers.


Sorry for the late reply but I thought it was worth sharing my experience.

We haven't done any pruning of our 6 (or so) cucumber plants, and we've been
picking about half-a-dozen full sized cucumbers a week.

--
Ben Thomas
Narre Warren South, Victoria

In article ,
John Savage wrote:

On our national gardening show (on ABC tv) Peter Cundall was talking
about pumpkins, and said growers should not to be reluctant to pinch
off the tips of long runners, this forces side runners to grow and it
is these side runners that bear the female flowers. So you will have
more pumpkins if you pinch off the tips of the main runners.

Anyone heard of this before?

Heard it, but we've just let our vines run rampant and we now have Quite
Enough pumpkins, thank you! We've got Galeax D'Eysines and what is probably
Qld Blue. The GAleaux D'Eysines pumpkins start off the colour of butternut
pumpkins, but are round like Qld Blues. As they get bigger, they develop
hugely unattractive warts and bumps, like the pebbles of the Eysine Mountains,
which is where the name comes from. Hideous, but apparently they taste good.
We'll see!

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"In Melbourne there is plenty of vigour and eagerness, but there is
nothing worth being eager or vigorous about."
Francis Adams, The Australians, 1893.