Can this pumpkin plant be saved?

He did it again! That clever little chipmunk made it through my 'impenetrable' fencing. I looked out my window and saw him digging away at one of my 3 pumpkin plants. I raced outside and scared him out of the garden through the same way he came in, but the damage was already done. All of the roots on the biggest pumpkin plant were gone. And some of the buds were just getting their color.

Immediately, I just pushed the stem down into the MM and watered like crazy. But a few hours later all of the leaves were flacid. So I cut off the top 5" and the next 8" and put both cuttings in an 80% water/20% MM container. The leaves bounced back quickly. But I wasn't sure they would grow roots if treated like cut flowers. So the next day I put them into straight vermiculite and have been keeping them very wet for 2 days.

:?: Will either cutting grow roots after all this trauma? What should I have done first? Was it even worth trying to save the plant?
Any insight would be much appreciated!

Never tried anything like that, won't hurt to see if it starts new roots. As for the chipmonk, what are you going to do about him? they are small little guys and so that may be difficult to tackle. I think they sell some kind of powder that you can sprinkle around your boxes to keep those rodent like critters away. I wish I knew what it is called. I was having problems with rabbits but they are bigger and it was an easy fix with chicken wire. Good luck and I'm sorry to hear about your plant.

Little Thumb

well, it doesn't hurt to try to save the pumpkin. It is the only way to bring the possibility of survival above 0%. (Don't come see my two beds filled with tomato transplants that are too small to have a reasonable chance of bearing fruit!!!)

There are several different things to try sprinkling around your beds. There is coyote urine (or fox, or whatever else.) I haven't used it, but I would have to think it would be effective.

I have used Shake Away. Between paragraphs, I looked it up on-line so I could tell you what it is - turns out it is fox urine, in powder form! And I did find it effective last year.

Note to self - go apply now!