[Weston grower]

Starting to plan for next year - my wife suggested trying to grow BNS and baby pumpkins up a wigwam made of pea sticks. I'm sure that I've seen this on TV?

Has anyone tried it and what are the pros and cons?

Regards, WG 

[New shoot]

They will climb and it is a good use of space, but I don't think pea sticks will be strong enough to hold the weight.

I've grown them over a garden arch in my raised beds at home.  My arch is 2 cheap black powder coated arches from the garden centre side by side but looks like a much more expensive garden feature because of the depth 

[Kleftiwallah]

I've grown courgettes up a tripod with great sucess, as a squash is quite a lot heavyer, I'd try and figure out some form of net support as they grow.  

These plants also grow auxiliary roots from the stems as they creep along the ground, this wouldn't happen in this case of course.    I might just give it a try next year.     Cheers,    Tony.

[mumofstig]

On Friday's GW Monty was taking his pumpkin wigwams down and they were quite thick hazel poles.

[madcat]

Mine grow up a fence made with sheep/pig netting, proper posts at the ends, and a hazel pole across the top to stop it sagging.  They do need reminding to climb and turning round to go back when they reach the end, but it works very well for acorn squash and Uchiki kuri.  No trouble with pollination (easy for the insects to find) or slugs, but bigger squash might need extra support.

[shokkyy]

This year I grew Crown Prince, Rolet and Uchiki Kuri. They all grew very vigorously but although they put off a lot of fruit most of them rotted and/or failed to grow. From 2 plants of each I managed one very small Crown Prince, 3 Rolet and 3 Uchiki, though 2 of the 3 are pretty small and even the third isn't full size.

But the Rolets found my pea canes and shot straight to the top of them, then happily rambled along the netting. And the Uchikis found the chain link fencing running round the outside of the bed, shot up the top of it and happily rambled all the way round. And it was only when the Rolet and Uchiki plants got off the ground that their fruit started setting properly and trying to grow. It did seem to me they were much happier off the ground and they certainly didn't need any encouragement to climb. I didn't need to support the fruit though I'm not sure I'd have got away with it if the Uchiki fruit had been full size.

Bizarrely, of the 3 varieties, I'd say the Crown Prince covered the least distance. The other 2 rambled a very long way indeed, about 20 feet if you count the vertical distance, whereas the Crown Prince only covered about 8 feet or so along the ground.

[simonwatson]

Most pumpkins and the like are pretty happy climbers, but as the fruit get heavier they need supporting. Those string bags that satsumas and the like come in are pretty good as they stretch as the fruit grows bigger. Once a fruit has set, pop it in the bag and attach the bag to the support higher up.

[Weston grower]

Thanks all,

That reassures me. I'll give it a go next year.   

Regards, WG

[stompy]

These plants also grow auxiliary roots from the stems as they creep along the ground

I have heard this before but have never found this happen, i have noticed that the tendrils dig into the ground but have never seen a second set of roots, ever!