By autumn, pumpkin vines are likely to have sprawled over every available space and are probably considering scaling the fence, while the yellow female flowers on each trailing arm will have swollen to form small pumpkins.
The vines don’t realise they’ve done enough and need to concentrate on growing bigger fruit — they just keep on sprawling and flowering until the weather turns cold.
Pumpkins can spread 3–7m from their starting point, especially if growing in rich soil with plenty of sunshine.
If your vine is sporting fruit, pinch out the growing tip to encourage the vine to stop spreading and concentrate its energy into growing bigger pumpkins while the weather is still warm.
If space is tight, pumpkins can be trained to grow vertically — for example, on a…
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Good Organic Gardening (Digital) - 1 Issue, 15.6