I pruned all my squash vines back, hope I did right?

[pointer80]

Hello all, Today I did a major prune job on my zucchini, acorn squash and also pumpkins. I pruned all the bigger older leaves to let some air in and also so the new leaves could have room to grow. I also wanted to give the pollinators room to get into the flowers that were down in the plant. I took about half the big older leaves off. Hope I did the right thing? As far as the pumpkin goes I got rid of all the little pumpkins except about two. With our shorter growing season here in zone 5a I figured they would not have enough time to mature anyway and the energy could go into the two pumpkins remaining. Is what I did the right way? I am new to growing my own garden so I am learning. Thanks all in advance.

[jal_ut]

I never prune pumpkin vines. Those big old leaves you mention are what produce the food that goes into the fruit. If you are going for a big pumpkin it is OK to prune off the other smaller fruits so all the energy can go into the one remaining. Don't prune leaves though.

[applestar]

Yeah I try not to prune perfectly good leaves. I remove --

1) yellowed leaves that are weakened and are likely to start showing fungal issues
2) leaves that HAVE powdery mildew, especially ones that are overhanging fruits -- don't want it snowing spores on the fruit
3) wilted leaves killed by squash bugs and stinkbugs
4) leaf covered by hatching event squashbug and stinkbugs nymphs/juvies -- fold with bugs inside, drop and thoroughly stomp or grind into the ground.
5) leaves that are in some way in a wrong place and must be removed -- after serious consideration. Example would be leaf growing into the path where I can't help damaging or trampling on it.

What I try to do and need to do due to limited space and almost every day due to their rapid growth, is to REDIRECT vines so they are growing in the desired direction or area.

[bri80]

Yeah I've never heard of pruning squash plants. You want those big old leaves, they're the powerhouse for producing big fruit. And you should be hand pollinating anyway, don't depend on bees to pollinate squash.

As for the fruits, typically pumpkins only set a few anyway. You might get slightly larger ones for removing the other flowers but only if the other ones are properly pollinated, so I hope you were hand pollinating!