GIANT PUMPKINS / SQUASHES GROWING

SUN LOOKING LEAVES

To the begin with, I want to apologize for my not so good English (which is self-learned). I hope that you will understand the most important things. If something sounds to you wrong, please let me know, and I will change it.

Here will describe the way I prune my plants since 2006.

The technique is very simple. It is upgraded Christmas tree style. I grow the plant usual xmas tree pattern, oriented north to south. The difference is in the additional pruning which I made. I remove (ASAP) all leaves on the secondary vines, which are on the south side of the vines. Because of this pruning most of the leaves that remain on the plant are "looking" to south, i. e. to the Sun (except the leaves on the main vine).

See the image:

Note: The angles of the sun rays are realistic (for the given day and latitude - 43 degrees North). Only the position of the leaves can vary significantly (as you know).

Why all that?

In theory this will lead to (much) more efficient photosynthesis. It should be very beneficial for the northern growers (i. e. - most AG growers), where the sun rays fall at more acute angle, and because of that the north faced leaves receive significantly less direct sun light, which lead to inefficient photosynthesis in these leaves. After removing them (as soon as possible), the remaining ones will grow bigger. Because of that there will be no significant decrease in total leaf area. So we will have nearly same total leaf area, with the addition of more efficient photosynthesis. In theory this also could allow decreasing the plant size, without sacrificing the yield.

Note: All secondary vines pruned that way should be buried, otherwise soon or later they will turn over.

Feedback

I would be grateful if you share your observations and opinion about this method of pruning.

Useful links:

You can find your latitude and longitude using any of these sites:
findlatitudeandlongitude.com
itouchmap.com/latlong.html
www.infoplease.com/atlas/latitude-longitude.html

Then you can calculate the angle of the sun rays at which they fall on the surface on your location, at any given year/day/hour at:
http://www.susdesign.com/sunposition/ (given as Altitude degrees)
And / Or
http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/azel.html (given as Solar Elevation)