S Cuve For The Pumpkin Main Vine

I was recently asked about how to do an S curve for where you set your pumpkin.  The reason you do this is to get the vine out of the way of the massive shoulders of the pumpkin and reduce stem stress.  

The following picture is of my 1421 that I will be pollinating tomorrow.  Over a few days, during the heat of the day, I've been bending the vine to make a curve in the vine with the pumpkin at the point.  I'll bend this one a little more tomorrow to get even more of a point.  Doing this now saves you a lot of headaches two months from now.

Tonight I gave both plants some compost tea with most of it being poured on the ground around the side vine tips and ahead of the vines.  If you look closely in the picture below you will see little white pumpkin roots to the right and just ahead of the vine tip where I moved a walking board.  This was about 9 feet from the stump and ahead of the vines.  You like to see that because it means the roots are growing well and they are what are going to power your pumpkin.