u/Big_Fruit_Energy

My shepherd kept wandering over to the fence line directly behind the stump of my ribbon (now normal) vine. I don’t need him playing in the dirt there and ruining the roots. I had to command him four separate times to get away. Each time he’d comply and then wander right back over. Like WTF, man. Now I know why…

I’m relieved and surprised he knew to be on his best behavior and to not leave the patch to investigate. He’s over there all the time, especially for his morning 💩.

Last images are of the pumpkin I pollinated yesterday morning on said ribbon vine. I decided a while back to name my pumpkins after creatures that have visited the patch. So far it’s been “Orb Weaver” and “Swallowtail”. I’m think “Whitetail” for this one 🤍

I previously posted about this vine about 11 days ago looking to see what others might do: either keep or cull. I ended up letting it continue to grow. It’s a bizarre plant but it’s got fantastic leaves compared to the rest of my plants. It finally produced a secondary a few days ago that vigorously grew like it was a main vine and it’s normal looking. I didn’t want the plant continuing to spend energy on the deformed meristem, so I chopped it.

Pic 1 is from yesterday with the secondary on the left and the meristem just to the right.

Pic 2 and 3 are from yesterday and marked up to show what the vine looks like and where I intended to cut.

Pic 4 and 5 are today post-chop.

6 and 7 are views of the meristem. Weirrrrrd!

Here’s hoping all goes well and things continue to thrive! 🤞🍀

Plant is from a seed from my 1200lb kin from last season. Little bummed given all the effort to keep it happy since transplant on May 1. It’s not terrible in terms of severity of irregularity but it’s too early to tell if it’ll “come out of it”. I won’t know if a secondary will be normal and can replace the main for a couple more weeks. Tempted to just cull it and replace with a back-up plant.

TBD if back-up will be another plant from my kin last year or a plant from an 8-year old seed. Both had been behind the curve in growth but seem to be doing well now. I’m surprised the 8yr seed even germinated and survived the seedling stage TBH.

FWIW I do have three other plants transplanted in my patch and thriving. If I lose this one and/or the back-up fails, I’m not at a loss for the season.