My 5 Secret Tips for a Bigger Better Squash Harvest!

what's going on growers it's James Prigioni  coming to you live from jersey today i want   to share with you my five secret tips  for growing bigger better squash let's go let's jump into the first tip that has to do with  saving our summer squash after the vine borers   have attacked them so the squash fine bore is  going to be one of the biggest issues that you're   probably going to have when it comes to growing  your squash your summer squash especially so this   issue it's kind of hard to prevent there are some  things we can do to prevent it that i'll share a   little bit later but if you're like me and you  already have this issue which is common at this   time of the year i think a lot of you probably do  have this problem where the squash fine bore has   bored into the stem what happens is they lay eggs  around the plant then the young larvae go into the   stem they bore into it they eat away at the stem  and they eat away into the stem which blocks the   flow of water without the flow of water this plant  really can't you know get any water and survive   and thrive so what i like to do one of my little  tricks is once i see this first starting to happen   early if i can't prevent it then what i do is i  move further down the vine you'll notice right   here and i bury the vine further down the stem  what this does is it forces it to root into the   ground so essentially i'm switching from the roots  coming from the you know all the way to the back   of the vine to the middle here so that squash vine  bore is working in there preventing the water from   moving from the ground through the plant but it's  not gonna be an issue when i rooted down here so   i'm gonna just pull back these a little bit just  to show you because it's probably starting to root   into the ground you'll notice as i'm starting  to move this that we'll start to see some roots   like right here if you can see they're starting to  root into the ground already i don't want to move   it too much to disturb it but this is how i like  to save this this plan right here and it really   thrives once it roots into the ground i like to  do this again once i start seeing the issues from   the squash vine borer and then this increases  my production and the length of time that this   plan will actually produce increasing my overall  harvest and right here is another location where i   have a summer squash where i just buried the stem  allowing that to root into the ground because the   the vine borers have bore into the stem  at the base and after it's rooted into   the ground like this what you can do is you  can go into the base of your of your zucchini   and you could actually cut out the larvae that's  inside of it because the larvae is probably still   inside of there blocking some of the water from  moving through and eating some of the stem on the   inside so you can cut it out and remove the larvae  the only issue is that it really damages the plant   and you could have a whole plant loss if you  don't do something like i did where you root it   before so if you want to root it ahead like this  and now it's rooted i can go back and remove the   larvae that's further closer to the base of the  plant my second tip to ensure a better summer   squash harvest is to avoid the vine bores the way  we do this is by staggering our plantings so if we   plant a second round of squash in july then these  will be mature by the time that the vine borers   have like essentially stopped laying their eggs  so we'll basically miss those bugs just by timing   the squash vine borers won't attack these plants  because they're planted later so that's a good way   to avoid them but i like also planting that early  round of squash like you've seen because we want   to make sure we're getting that early harvest so  this really ensures that we're going to get a good   late harvest too so if we plant that early round  and the vine borers get them and we haven't buried   the stem like i showed we at least have that  second round to ensure ourselves that good harvest   that consistent harvest that should continue to  produce up to the frost as long as we follow some   instructions and an important one that i'll get  into later in the video my third tip for bigger   and better squash harvest is to hand pollinate  if you're not getting good pollination yourself   one way to look at this is let me bring you  down here we'll notice right here these are   squash that look like they were going to be  you know good good zucchinis right here but   then they didn't get pollinated and they died  off that's what happens that's why this one   looks like this and this one looks bad like that  so what we can do is we can hand pollinate these   ourselves in order to ensure a better pollination  the way to do this is you can use a q-tip or a   paint brush or even the male flower first we want  to come out in the morning and identify the male   flower the male flower looks like this it's just  got this long thin stem and it's much different   from the female so what i'm going to do is take  this i'm going to dip it in i'm going to get some some pollen on it just like this next i'm going  to move over to a female flower right down here   and the female flower is pretty easy to  identify because it has that mini little   zucchini at the end of it so then we take  the pollen from the male flower and we're   just going to put it into the center and  pollinate that female flower just like that so what that's going to do is ensure ourselves a  better overall pollination if we want though we   could just take this male flower like this and  kind of you know peel away some of the leaves   and then just put it into the center like this too  if you want so this is just ensuring ourselves a   better pollination overall which will lead to  bigger harvest because more fruit equals more   food basically the fourth tip to ensure yourself  a bigger and better squash harvest has to do with   extending your harvest so this same principle  applies for summer squash cucumbers and green   beans and this principle is that the more you pick  the more you get so when it comes to summer squash   cucumbers or beans they're all basically relative  and it has to do with getting these fruit when   they're young so summer squash or cucumbers you  can't pick them too young because they're even   better when they taste young they're sweeter  and overall the fruit usually just tastes even   better when it's young but the only issue you  can make is if you allow them to get too big   so as we move up here like this cucumber here  we don't want our cucumbers getting too large   this is still a good size but if you start to  see cucumbers turning yellow they're way past   if your squash gets to be too large and the  flower starts to fall off the end of the squash   then that's too far past if we allow these  fruits to ripen on the vine and get too far past   that will slow down and the whole entire bind and  that could even cause the vine to quit producing   overall so when it comes to summer squash when it  comes to cucumbers when it comes to green beans   you got to keep picking you don't want  them to uh you don't want the vine to   quit producing just because it's focusing on the  production of just getting the fruit ripened so   look at that four cucumbers on one plant that  could have been the same principle for a summer   squash plant too the fifth tip to ensure a bigger  and better squash harvest isn't actually one that   i'm using this year but i have used it in the past  and i'm definitely going to be using it next year   and it has to do with using trap crops so like  i mentioned earlier when it comes to growing our   summer squash or any squash the squash vine borer  is a big issue with it also the squash bugs so a   good way to actually prevent the bugs from going  to your plants that you want to grow is to grow a   variety that's more attractive for those bugs and  a great variety is the blue hubbard squash chuck   what are you doing boy digging a hole this guy's  been digging some holes here let me just see if he   maybe wants a cucumber or something a fresh little  one maybe that'll stop him from digging we've got   some small small cucumbers over here maybe he  wants to snack on one snap it off for him you   guys love seeing tuck in the videos hit that  like button because we love having him in here   so like i mentioned um a great thing to do is trap  crops and the blue hubbard squash is a great great   variety for that because it's more attractive for  a number of insects so the blue hubbard squash is   more attractive for the squash vine borers and  also the squash bugs so if they have a choice   to go for something like your custada romanesco  squash or the blue hubbard they're going to go   after the blue hubbard so we want all those uh  insects to go to that the blue hubbard is also   good for your cucumbers too because it attracts  the cucumber beetles which is a big issue with   your uh with your cucumbers so this trap crop can  actually help a number of different uh insects and   issues so it's pretty funny you can just put that  one crop into the ground and that'll draw on a lot   of your insects and it's almost like a sacrificial  crop you know i try to leave you with more than i   promise so i have to give you a bonus tip and my  bonus tip has to do with pruning don't be afraid   to prune your zucchini leaves and plants when  they have some disease issues so if you see a leaf   that is dying back or has some form of a disease  issue get that out as soon as possible don't be   afraid to prune your zucchini because if one plant  one leaf has some kind of fungal issue or disease   that could easily bubble up and get worse and  spread to the rest of your plant so once you   see an issue arise get to it as early as possible  prune out those leaves pretty close to the stem   like i'm doing here and just get rid of it  this will lead to overall a bigger harvest   sometimes for for new gardeners it can seem  counterproductive and counter-intuitive   to be removing things from your plants but overall  it actually gives back so sometimes cutting away   the bad things can lead to bigger harvest and  better healthier plants overall that's today's   video growers thanks for watching i hope you  enjoyed it i hope you got something out of it   i hope these tips allow you to get bigger harvest  better harvest and allow you to extend that season   that's my goal i want you to be eating as much  food as possible with the least amount of work   so when you put that squash plant in i want you to  extend that harvest so you know that that little   work that you put in just uh produces a lot of  food for you so i wanted to thank robert hughes   one of the new channel members thanks for being a  part of team grow it means a lot to me and tucked   knowing that we're creating some value and that  you guys feel that it's enough that you're able   to contribute back for for what we're creating so  thank you a lot for that before you guys go though   make sure you hit the like button hit the  subscribe button share with your friends   don't forget to check out the merch down low  and remember whenever you're on amazon start   your shopping with our amazon affiliate link tucks  around here somewhere probably laying underneath   the tree actually he is over there by the  hazelnuts in one of his holes like i s it's just   getting hot out here this time of year is tough  for him with the heat but we make sure we stay   hydrated by eating so many cucumbers we'll catch  you guys back real soon james and tuck we out!

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 503,533

Keywords: gardening, garden tips, gardening tips, garden secret, garden secrets, gardening secrets, organic gardening, squash, summer squash, squash vine borers, squash bugs, cucumber beetle, how to squash vine borer, epic gardening, garden answer, James prigoni, how to garden

Id: b-ruQumCv4E

Length: 9min 47sec (587 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 21 2021