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magius_majere

Pumpkins not vining 9b

10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago

Hey folks, I planted my winter squash over 2 months ago here in Southern California and they have not vined at all and are now flowering. Does anyone know why, and do you think I should just replant from seed? We're now in 90 - 100 degree weather. I just moved out here to the west coast so I'm still learning the gardening patterns here in California. Any advice is much appreciated!!


Comments (8)

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    I don't grow pumpkins (no room!) so no specific help other than to say they look pretty healthy and if they're flowering I'd leave them - at a minimum to learn from them and hopefully they'll produce just fine for you. Depending on the DTM of the pumpkins you are growing and where exactly you live in SoCal, you may still have time to plant another batch from seed, but if it were me I'd leave those in and plant new alongside them to hedge your bets and compare/learn from. If nothing else it should help you nail down planting time for next year.

    My winter squash are hit or miss. Where I am it's been a fairly cool/foggy spring/summer up until a few weeks ago when we had the furnace blow through, so my "summer" stuff is just now starting to take off. My spaghetti squash has already been producing, my butternut squash is idling around barely vining and flowering only recently. So it could be some pickiness in the plants as to weather or the area you have the pumpkins in, too.

    One unrelated but important side note - I notice you have the pumpkins planted in the ground. Just wanted to mention, since you're a new transplant to the area, watch very closely for any signs of pocket gopher activity near your planting beds (or really anywhere on your property, they can travel long distances underground). They are a scourge here and will uproot, eat roots, cut plants off at ground level or just tunnel around your roots so that water drains away and your plants die. At the first sign of any gopher activity, jump on it with haste.

    Laser Cat (So Cal 9b) thanked Humsi
  • 10 years ago

    We planted seeds in our raised bed about 2 weeks ago. They now have a couple sets of leaves, but have yet to vine. They are still babies. It's not too late to plant in your zone. We should have heat long enough for them to ripen. Maybe pick a fast ripening type?

    Laser Cat (So Cal 9b) thanked Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
  • 10 years ago

    Hey guys thanks for the help so far! I did decide to replant a batch from seed last weekend alongside the others, so now it seems I'll just rip out the other ones. Maybe they were just stressed from our cold and then blazing hot weather we've had here. They oddly do look like they were transplanted from nursery starts but were not, I directly seeded them. Must be stress then. As far as gophers are concerned YES! I've already had to trap 3-4. I planted daffodils everywhere in hopes to deter them! In any case, just for the record, the varieties I planted are:

    Golden Delicious Squash

    Waltham Butternut Squash

    Small Sugar Pumpkin

    Table Queen Acorn Squash


  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    I'm afraid the daffodils won't deter gophers, nor any other plants. The only thing I've found that works long term is continued trapping - and you have to keep up on it, as new gophers will move into abandoned tunnels once you get rid of the old gophers. I swear I have the gopher super highway running through my yard.

    Anyway, since you're already having gophers show up, from now on you might look into planting anything you put in the ground into gopher baskets - either store bought or hand made (a basket made out of any smaller than chicken wire mesh that you then sink into the ground and plant into, leaving a few inches of the basket above ground so they can't climb over). It's a pain in the butt, but it saves the pain in the butt later of dead plants that were doing really well until gophers found them.

    One of the reasons I moved to gardening in raised beds with hardware cloth bottoms. Basically a giant gopher basket I never have to replace ;) Does cut down on your planting space, though, hence no pumpkins for me.

  • 10 years ago

    I believe daffodils are toxic to gophers, but they aren't a repellent. Gophers just won't eat them. So daffodils pretty much protect daffodils, but that's about it.

  • 10 years ago

    do you have to rip them out for the space? If it were me I would let them go AND plant seeds, those are small but could produce a squash or two since they are flowering.

  • 6 years ago

    The leaves look yellow on these looks like Nutrient deficiency.