Topic: Severed Pumpkin

[fbgrifter]

Got to the allotment today and saw that my Baby Bear Pumpkin was completely severed at ground level.  The plant was about 4 foot long and the stem was about the thickness of a broom handle.  Could this be the work of cut worm?  I didn't think they ate anything thicker than a lettuce stem!  :'(
Any ideas appreciated!

[reedos]

Don't know about cut worm, but I've had slugs eat throught the stems of my pumpkins. They left the leaves completely alone - wasn't pleased >:(

[Doris_Pinks]

Noooooooooooooooooo FB  I would be totally gutted! (I know I have to get a life!) I would have thought that at 4 feet, it would have been beyond the pest's stage. Slugs usually get mine when they are small. You have my sympathies.

[Amazin]

Doris, your life sounds fine to me (and strangely familiar!) I too get sooooo upset when something like this happens.
FBG, as this is my first year as a  pumpkinner, I'm afraid I don't have the knowlege to advise but I wonder, could it have been a rodent?

[john_miller]

If it was the size of a broom handle it would be quite woody. Probably not something a rodent would be interested in with the exception of porcupines or beavers. How about that great domestic pest Homo sapiens juvenilius?

[Mrs Ava]

Or could it be that it snapped due to inclement weather? 

I found 6 of my runner beans all cut cleany at ground level, but also found a couple of whopping big snails under a nearby lettuce.  Now why couldn't they have eaten the lettuce, so tender and sweet!!