"pinching out/off" a Pumpkin!

[Hollie the Wollie]

My Pumpkins is taking over the garden! I have two plants and they are bullying and pushing their way through and across everything! Those tendrils are latching on to anything in their reach... I'm sure they would get me if I stood still long enough!

My Grandma said that I can "pinch off" any more new growth. This way I should get bigger better pumpkins and stop them literally taking over the whole garden! Is this right? and if so, how should I go about it?

The two plants seem to have at least 4 baby pumpkins each now.

[Hollie the Wollie]

Here is this morning's photo...

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Hollie, your pumpkin vine is just a baby!! They can grow up to 30 feet long!! Pruning the vines is similar to growing tomatoes. There is a main central vine with secondary side branches growing off it. Keep the secondary side branches as they give energy to the plant. But you will see that there are side shoots, or tertiary vines, growing from each leaf node on the secondary side branches and these tertiary vines need removing - just cut them off. Ideally the secondary side branches want to grow to about 8 feet long then just pinch off the end of the secondary vine (side branch) so that it won't grow any longer. Ideally remove the end of the main vine when it has grown about an extra 10 feet after the last pumpkin. You can move the vine to make it grow where you want and curl it around to fit into your space better.

[Hollie the Wollie]

Oh Lesley thanks so much for your time here. Ive been too nervous to do anything with the pumpkin and it seems every day there are more and more little babies appearing. Im going to go out there in a minute and see what I can do - I will take pics!

[Hollie the Wollie]

So, here is what I did... I hope Ive done the right thing!

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Hollie, well it certainly looks okay! The plant should look more open now. You can remove some of the baby pumpkins so that the plants energy goes into making the remaining pumpkins a good size, but wait until you are absolutely certain that these remaining pumpkins are 'set' and are at least the size of a grapefruit. Good luck!

[Hollie the Wollie]

Oh thats great advice Lesley - as always! Thank you. I will be sure to keep you all updated and when I have grapefruit sized pumpies I will start looking at getting rid of the smaller ones! Thanks again

[Mikey & Annie]

HI and hope this does not constitute hijacking a thread, but when can you harvest pumpkins? Some websites say when the skin has hardened and others say just before the first frost.

[Hollie the Wollie]

Oh no, that's a great question! I need help with this too - my two pumpkins are now massive but still very yellow. I have heard that when the stems start to crack and become brittle-like, they are ready to cut away. I have also heard that they need storing before using and that they can be stored up to 6 months!

Is any of this true?! The stem on the biggest pumpkin has cracked/split open already. I only wanted mine for Halloween decorations but thats two months away! Help!