Prune zucchini and squash plants for MAXIMUM production| Promotes new growth and prevents disease

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In this video we will be pruning our squash and zucchini plants to prevent disease, increase air flow, and encourage new growth!

[bigdogbob]

S & K, several tips that I have learned in my 50+ years of vegetable gardening are, 1st. Do Not water the leaves of any kind of squash, ONLY water the soil below the plants, 2nd. prune the old leaves as the plant grows and spreads out, this will force the nutrients to the new leaves and flowers, 3rd. powdery mildew can be effectively controlled with Whole Milk in a pump sprayer. And ENJOY ! ! !

[reginagoff]

I just happened across this video and after gardening for 40 years, I learned a lot. I had no idea zucchini plant should be pruned. I like this guy!

[lindacaldwell]

I have pruned my zucchini plants for about 5 yrs now. Believe me it works. It keeps the leaves up off the ground and helps to keep the leaves from getting overly wet. The plants usually make it all summer long until fall. They never did that before pruning. Now I get fruit all summer!!

[jeffreywilmer]

I have had some pretty good success training summer squash on a rope line, growing vertical. It keeps the plant airy and allows bees to pollinate when I do not get to the fruits. Also, I freeze the male flowers to have spares when there is female fruit and no male pollinators.

[marjoriedanley]

Thank you for showing us that we need to prune these plants. I’m 66 years old and have never had a garden, until this year. I can identify mistakes that I’ve already made. But I’m learning and videos like yours have definitely helped me. Have a Blessed day.

[disgruntledpatient]

This is my 1st year planting zucchini and squash. Now I know why all those little fruits are dying off. And I had no idea about pruning the plants either! Thank you!!

[Juxtoposethevision]

First time coming across this gentleman, I like him.

[gracegarden]

Although this was 11 months ago, this is right on time for me.

[studymassage]

I have grown Zucchini with great success for over 60 years, I use a misting system that runs at night which is like nature does when it rains. My wife makes bread out of it, with nuts, berries, crushed grains, sometimes chocolate bits. Her little 6" loaves are a hit at the farmer's markets, she sells several hundred every year.

[rhondamontgomery]

70 & still learning! Thank you so much. Can’t wait to try pruning this year!!!!

[karengrice]

I got a mason bee house and bought some cocoons at the local nursery. They actually pollinate 90% more plants than honey bees. They aren’t part of a hive so they aren’t concerned with a queen. Just independent little workhorses!

[ashuhhleycakes]

Definitely learned a lot. My zucchini plant is quite dense and bushy with small rotting fruit. You helped me solve my issues in one video - thanks!

[lyndajovanovic]

I stumbled on to your site's lesson on pruning zucchini plants. Thank heaven I did! I'm new at growing veggies so it's turning out to be a steep learning curve. This lesson is right on time.

[kelaxy]

I hand pollinated squash one year waiting on my bees to show up. For two parts that never ever connect it’s absolutely fascinating how the stamen and the pistils so perfectly interlock together. ✌️

[ecogeekmama]

@s&K greenhouse I really appreciate that you showed the bees pollinating the fruits. It’s a great Opportunity to talk about the fact that that was not a honeybee it was a member of the Xylocopa genus, possibly Xylocopa Virginica aka carpenter bees. Honeybees don’t usually get up early enough to pollinate squash, instead native bees do an amazing job. It’s common to find long horned Melissodes bees or green sweat bees like Agapostemon working hard to get food for themselves and then feed us along the way. With more than 4, 000 native bee species across America (Amd not talking about honeybees which were Brought here in the 1600s and are a managed agricultural resource), We should all be doing as much as possible to learn about the native bees in our area. I also appreciate the fact that you talked about making sure that there are other plants around for them to forage on to help bring them into the garden areas. Some of the tiniest bees want forage more than 100 feet away from their nest in the ground while others like bumblebees will fly a couple of miles. Adding native wildflowers can go along way towards feeding the native bees it will then pollinate your food crops.

[saundrayork]

I've never before heard of pruning squash plants; however, you've explained this so well that I can't wait to try it. THANKS!

[leannekenyoung]

Thank you for your video I’ve been pruning my cucumber plants and now my squash plants extremely heavily because I’m growing them indoors in my apartment and I’m actually growing them hydroponically in a 5 gallon bucket. I also use a tomato cage upside down on the bucket. The cage supports some of the weight of the plant and I run a pretty heavy gauge string from the ceiling down into the Center of the plant and it gives the tendrils something g to latch onto as they grow and they love to grow up the center strong. I have also been hand pollinating and I’ve tried a paint brush and a qtip but I found neither of those worked instead what I do is take the male flower and peel all the petals back and only when I have a female flower that is fully open and then I place the center of what’s left of the male flower and gently while holdin underneath the bottom of the female flower I place the center of the male flower down in as far into the bottom of the female blossom as possible gently and give it a brisk little shake and then I’ll turn the male flower a quarter turn one way and then back again and if the male center will remain in thr female flower I’ll just leave it in there until the following morning. Sometimes it will remain and other times depending on the direction the female flower is facing it will not. But that is the only way that I’ve found has given me 100% pollination rates. For whatever reason the pollen doesnt seem to stick to a paint brush or a qtip and if u are lucky enough to get it on either of them then it doesn’t seem to release the pollen into the female blossom where you need it to go. Just that’s been my experience in hand pollinating.🙏🏻🥰🇨🇦

[richardmatthews]

Thanks for describing the Male and female parts and the importance of trimming the foliage to assist the bees in pollination.

[laronn]

Great vid. Last year our plants did not produce any zucs or they rotted, looking back no bees pollenated the flowers. This morning the flowers opened up and we noticed a bee doing their work. That’s good. Also now can recognize male and female plants in case we need to manually pollinate with a q-tip.

[cryogen]

Started radically pruning squash a couple of years ago. Any leaf in the shade of another leaf or with powdery mildew gets cut. We train them up a small tomato cage. Now we get squash into september. It works.