Question
This past spring I planted pumpkins and brussels sprouts in my back yard for the first time. The plants are flourishing and seem like they will be producing. My problem is that I planted them way to close together. (i.e. like 8-12 inches away from each other.) Now they seem to be growing on top of one another. My pumpkin plant has even grow threw my fence and into my neighbors yard! Do you have any advice on how to control the vines and how to stop them from covering my brussels sprouts. Thanks for listening.

Answer
Una, you probably will not like my answer, but the only solution is to pull some of the plants or let them grow and see what materializes.

Pumpkins and other members of the squash family need to be planted a minimum of 24" apart. One option is to grow them vertically up a trellis, but this needs to be done when the plants are still young and can be trained vertically.

Growing them too closely has other ramifications besides the fact they will grow over one another. They will also compete for water and nutrients, which most likely will result in smaller pumpkins and less of a harvest on the brussel sprouts.

If you only grew one pumpkin plant, you can prune the vines that are interfering with the brussel sprouts. You will have less pumpkins, but the good news is that the plant will expend all of its energy on the remaining vines and result in much larger fruit.

I hope this answered your question. Please write again if I can ever be of assistance.

Regards,

Mike