How to Cut Vegetable Vines

If you want to keep your vegetable vines healthy throughout the growing and harvesting seasons, learn the proper cutting techniques. If you make improper cuts, you can leave the plant's vines vulnerable to insects and disease. Even if you notice how simple it is to twist vine vegetables off their stems, it's always better to cut first. Small, vine vegetables such as peas and beans don't need cutting, but the larger-stemmed varieties such as pumpkins, squash, gourds and cucumbers benefit from clean cuts.

Bypass pruning shears
Rubbing alcohol

Instructions

- 1
  Cradle the base of the vegetable in your left hand if it's not too heavy. You can leave heavier vegetables laying on the ground. Turn or roll the vegetable until you can clearly see its stem.
- 2
  Snip the stem as close to the vegetable as possible. You can leave more of the stem on pumpkins if you're going to be using them for Halloween carvings. Use a pair of sharp bypass pruning shears to make this cut.
- 3
  Clean the pruning blades with rubbing alcohol whenever you need to use the same shears to cut a different plant of the same variety or a different plant species altogether. This ensures you don't spread disease.

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