Back when I first started gardening , I thought leave a pumpkin vine to grow every which way was the only agency to keep it alive and well .
Turns out , this is n’t necessarily true .
While it ’s not perfectly necessary to trim the vines , doing so can encourage amore abundant harvest , and larger pumpkin vine .
Photo by Laura Melchor.
The master reasons why gardeners cut back their pumpkin plants are to prevent them from choking out other plant life in the garden , for ease of maintenance , and to increase airflow between the leaves , which can help to prevent disease .
to boot , by sacrifice some of the immature yield , it allows the plant to put all its push into developing the remaining pumpkins .
If you ’re farm pumpkin – which you could hear more about inour growing guide – you ’ll need to know how to manage them .
Photo by Laura Melchor.
Here ’s what you ’ll discover :
What You’ll Learn
Anatomy of a Vine
When to Prune
How to cut
Before we get into the nitty - gritty of when and how to trim your pumpkin plant , here are a few things to know about their development habits .
First , there ’s the main vine , which is the one forthwith sequester to the roots that develop out of the dry land . It ’s the thick one you ’ll see when you inspect your plant .
grow from the master vine are secondary vine called “ runner , ” which produce secondary antecedent if left to grow uninterrupted .
you could also encourage growth of secondary roots by burying the stem , as you ’ll see below . These offset can , in bend , acquire extra runners known as tertiaries .
Leaves and blooms – and therefore fruit – can grow from any of these vines . However , it is best to remove any third blue runner as soon as you notice them , to avoid diverting nutrients from the main and secondary vines .
It can be confusing to sort out which is which , but it ’s worth taking the metre to acquaint yourself with your plant life so that when the time come to trim , you ’ll get it on what you ’re look at .
Before you do any trim , wait until they are at least 10 - 15 feet prospicient . Ideally , you should seek to arrest off until you ’ve got two to five established fruits growing forlarger varieties , or about 10 - 12 piddling calabash on small cultivars .
in the first place this year when I wasgrowing tomatoes , I noticed a folio spot starting to originate on the lower leaf of the industrial plant .
Panicking , I research what I should do to keep the works healthy . It turned out it was a fungous contagion , and blithely , the answer was easy : dress away affected leaves and prune the lower portion of the plant to polish off the leaves .
That agency , water splashing up from septic soil wo n’t get the fungus to reinfect Modern low leaves .
It worked , and my tomato are expand . But my vernal autumn pumpkin leaves soon developed a few small milklike smear on the edge , and I panic yet again .
This time , without doing any additional enquiry first , I trim a few leafage back when the fore was barely a foot long .
I ’m not certain what the musca volitans were , and the flora seem ok now . But they ’re develop more slowly than they plausibly would have if I had n’t recklessly removed the leaf , disrupting their early growth .
Here are a few extra rule of thumb for when to trim :
It ’s really that promiscuous .
Now , let ’s talk abouthowto trim your pumpkin plant .
Equipment - Stephen Samuel Wise , all you ’ll need for pruning is a pair of gardening baseball glove , somepruning shears , and a tape step .
To garnish the main vine , criterion 10 - 15 feet from the meat of the plant where it originate out of the ground . If there ’s an established fruit growing at that point and you want to keep it , do n’t trend yet !
rather , measure another five or so foot past the last healthy fruit and make your cold shoulder there .
However , if the yield is soft or it ’s the sixth or 7th gourd on the plant , including those growing on the secondary moon curser , cutting it off can aid your plant life focalise its energy on the other five squash racquets .
This means bigger , tasty , pretty pumpkins for you .
To dress secondary runner , measure out about 10 feet from where the runner shoots off the main stalk and trim it there .
Because they hive off nutrients and Energy Department from the main and lowly vines , it ’s a good idea to trim tertiaries as presently as you see them .
After you make a cut , bury the severed wind an column inch or two deep in the soil andcover it with mulch .
This will aid to prevent the plant from drying out , and it ’ll also make it harder for pests to encroach upon or disease to take hold .
Plus , if you keep the soil moist , it should develop a secondary root organization where it was cut , lead in more aliment for your growing gourds .
By keeping the plant cut down and neat , you ’ll advance it to maturate strong , tidy squash vine . And is n’t that the ultimate end of any pumpkin grower ?
No Rat’s Nest Here
You don’thaveto prune your pumpkin plants . You ’ll still get some fruit , even if you let them lean barbarian .
But it ’ll be like get a toddler ’s curly mop of haircloth grow and grow without brush or snip it to keep it level-headed .
( Am I utter from personal experience ? mayhap . Just maybe … )
A rationalise pumpkin plot of ground is a happy one , so do n’t be afraid to pull out those pruning shear and get to oeuvre .
And for more information aboutgrowing pumpkinsin your veggie garden , check out these templet next :
pic by Laura Melchor © Ask the Experts , LLC . ALL rightfield RESERVED.See our TOSfor more item . Originally published June 1st , 2020 . Last updated April 29th , 2025 . Uncredited photo : Shutterstock .
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Laura Ojeda Melchor
