Dee Strawser great info.!!!

Great trick Dee Strawser

Dee Strawser Awesome info, thanks!

Thank you !!!

Anything to help with the vine borers?

What's a trap crop? Are you saying that you can plant a squash that attracts bugs and keeps them off of other crops?

@@dariendude17 yes. Plant earlier than the main crop and as far away from the rest as possible. As pests appear you can use an organic pest control in the beginning of the pest cycle an hopefully interrupt it.

I was planning to use blue Hubbard as a trap crop also, wondered if it would really protect the summer squash. So glad I saw this before I planted, guess the trick is to plant it away from the rest of the garden? I think the point of the article I read was the blue Hubbard was a sacrifice, not really expecting it to do much but draw the bugs away from my beloved crookneck. Altho since ordering the winter squash seeds I have sort of started looking forward to trying winter squash, something I've never had. Thanks for the video Sara and Kevin, guess maybe bush winter squash isn't such a good thing after all?

Hi guys, I also had a pretty bad experience with squash bugs and fine boards and it usually was around the Hubbard squash. I planted pumpkins 500 ft away and they didn't have any problems at all and the Hubbard squash and the zucchini and the yellow squash that I planted close did. Some of the other comments we're talking about trap crops where you plant a susceptible variety far enough away to attract the bugs to it and not attack the desired variety. I think next year I'm going to try that. I have room enough to expand the growing area. You also mentioned tomatoes and varieties that people love and I have to say that after 10 years or so of experimenting I still find that the standard Amish paste or Amish Plum depending on which brand is about my best variety here in New england. I'm in growing zone 5A and have really great luck with it. Last year I planted 42 tomato plants and my wife was able to can up gallons upon gallons of sauces and ketchup and all the other things that we make from tomatoes. Speaking of ketchup you had a nice recipe for ketchup the taste of much like the Heinz Ketchup. I'm forwarded that to my lovely wife and hopefully she'll try that one this year. Another thing I really like is at the end of our season which can happen pretty much at a moment's notice cuz we're on an elevation of 1300 ft which is not sounding like much but it's 1100 plus feet higher than the rest surrounding areas or on the very top of the hill. I take those green tomatoes that are left over and make green tomato relish. I love it I wish that we had more of them LOL Thanks for your videos I've learned a lot from you guys and really appreciate the tips and the growing info. I grew up with baby pigs and ducks rabbits and cows and so forth. My favorite of the baby pigs they are the cutest thing on the face of the Earth. So keep the videos coming and best of luck and all your crops this year. Thanks Tom

@Darienlynn87 absolutely! I will add that nasturtium is a great diversion AND companion plant. Make sure to score the seeds and soak for 12 hours in water before planting. They're finicky seeds that way. All the bugs love them More than they'll want your vegetable plants.

And, my mom added a sprinkle of cinnamon! Fantastic 😋

I grew my first acorn squash last summer and fell in love with them. I halved mine, removed and toasted the seeds. cut the bottom off and added butter, salt and pepper. Then stuffed them with an Italian sausage stuffing mixture and baked... soooo goood!

I tried this and it doesnt work. The only thing that worked was squash vine borer traps paired with hand picking

Zinnias do great as a shield too

Yay! How wonderful you have great abundance growing and ripening. I'm so happy for you!!

Margaret D sounds fantastic! I am a fan of butternut type textures. I love winter squashes, they are so pretty, yummy and store so well.

Margaret D we always plant huberd nice hard squash. you can even make pie out of them like pumpkin.

Sounds like banana squash Sir. Nothing wrong with your memory. Huge and delicious. 😂 you really have to use a butcher knife to cut them.

I think that was the pink banana squash? In the 80's, it was common to see it cut into chunks in the grocery store produce isle.

North Georgia Candy Roaster?

I tried pink banana squash back in 2011. Major sprawl of vines. In 2012 I tried a new method... and it worked well. Start your squash and as it grows out, gently pull it into a curve and train it around itself in a spiral. It will grow and grow and grow and you can keep spiralling it round and round. This helps keep it from sprawling everywhere and getting mixed-up with the rest of the garden. When you have a spiral here and another one there... you have space to walk between them without stepping on vines. You might want to try it too. BTW, I call them "PBS" ... just cuz. Back when I was calling myself a prepper, I commented a lot about these. I consider them to be THE perfect Survival crop. As you said, the vines grow and grow... the squash are pretty huge... and I got at least three squash per vine. And each squash is FULL of (literally) hundreds of seeds. All you need is just one ripe squash and then you'll have a lifetime of seeds. I figure in a post-apocalypse situation, I'll go around my neighborhood with seeds and plant them all over the place... ever neighbor's yard will have lots of squash growing. We might get tired of squash, but we won't go hungry. Ergo, ultimate prepper survival food crop. I'd put it on the same level with sweet-potatoes. In future if I can get some significant property (acreage), I want to build trellises up and sideways, so the vines can grow above head height and the squash can hang down as they form and grow. (I read this in a comment on a video somewhere and it strikes me as perfect. They said that hanging allows the squash to grow straight and long before filling-out and fattening up thick. I've got to see how well that works. LOL) I just realized how old my seeds are. I gotta grow some PBS this year and get some fresh seeds. Then I'm going to share them here, there and everywhere.

That explains why ours didn't get bothered at all... We just burned out a lot of brush & junk trees & mixed the ashes with the compost.

@@MeanOldLady we have a fireplace in the winter and always dump them in the garden. Never had an issue

I'm going to experiment with an acidic spray. Aspirin water. Actually going to use Willow tree juice. Injured plants supposedly give off the same thing.

Holly Hawkins Just a reminder for folks to not use ash if you burn those chemical fire starter bricks to get fires started. Toxic.

​@@bobjones1131 do you spray it to the plant or next to it?

They must be pretty region-specific. I bought some seeds (expensive for what I got) and the first sowing didn't germinate at all, the second finally did but ended up being petulant and were so slow to grow that here it is mid-August and still no flowers even. I'll never get any fruits from the vines at this rate before our frost so either it is GSM to blame or this variety just isn't suited to anywhere but the Southeast. ??

They store up to a year.

They are a southern variety.

I love these....grown them before.

What!? 70? I have grown these a lot and rarely get more than 1 or 2 per plant. This is unheard of in my area. I can only imagine you have a very long growing season? Anyhow, impressive! They are very tasty!

Joel I like mint but it will get out of hand quick. Now I can’t get rid of it. It will take over your entire garden and yard.

my summer squash has been hit hard by vine borers this year. i have lost about half my plants even though i dug a bunch of borer grubs out of their stems. since the grubs go into the ground and overwinter there after they feast on the vines i remove the dead squash vines and then till the ground and pick out all the grubs i find. i have probably found about 50 grubs that way so far and have a couple more spots to dig through where plants have died. i also find quite a few in the vines when i cut them open. i saw on youtube about planting them later when the borer moth has already done its dirty deed but here in tn that has not worked so well. my grandson and i have seen a few of these moths in july and august and i have killed a few with an electronic fly swatter but apparently not nearly enough. i am still cutting open stems and digging grubs out. mine got hit so hard i started a later crop and they are flowering nicely and one even has a zucchini on it. next year come spring i will be trying the nematodes as they are supposed to kill off any grubs in the soil. no grubs no borer moths. at least that is the idea. this fall after my squash has played out i will till the ground and take out all the grubs i find. then i plan on covering the garden with shredded leaves hay wood chips or whatever i can find.

Dolly Perry they lay their eggs on squash leaves. Rake them up down to the roots and burn them.

I agree with you. We like the Hubbard squash as that are a catch crop that attracts the majority of bugs. They freeze well for stews, soups and pies 🥧

FATT's Homestead they roast just like Pumpkin seeds. You'll love them.

Been lookin for cushaw squash seeds seem nobody likes these anymore just love them in pies cut the neck an peel an cook w sugar an cinnamon just wonderful

I strongly recommend Roots and Refuge Farm!

TJ Wilson I love them. I spend a lot of time between Living Traditions and Roots and Refuge. Both are such sweet couples who seem to work really hard but love what they do.

Rampicante best bar none. My kids took pictures with three foot squash. We didn't eat those (younger ones) but we loved seeing them grow to huge sizes. No bugs touched it. Zuchinni Rampicante I believe they were from France.

A nice article about the Green striped Cushaw squash. www.slowfoodusa.org/ark-item/green-striped-cushaw

My grandmother grew them and made pumpkin pie out of them, they were good!

interesting,I may try it next year. thank you

I've been told the cushaw is very borer resistant. Trying it next year.

ffwife1210 great tip

Deep South Homestead What is the taste of the Cherokee Tan? How is it used in tbe kitchen?

We are excited to give them a try! Thank you so much!!!!

Cathy Brown Deep South Homestead has videos on them. Lots of info on them. We got our seeds from them as well.

Hi Danny & Wanda! I'd love to try the Cherokee Tan. Vine borers are horrible here.

@@cathybrown3545 Cathy it has a tropical smell when cut open. We have videos on how we cook it on our channel. Thanks

Exactly my experience. If I had to choose only one squash to grow, it would definitely be the Rampicante.

thank you,, sounds good.

Bwahahahaha, I was going to say the same thing! We always had it grow over the chicken coop to shade the birds in summer.

Great advice, I'm adding that to my list. Summers coming soon for us :) !!!!!

Yep Queensland Blue are fantastic for over wintering, that’s what we grew in the last growing season and we still have them sitting on our shelf’s

Cae Walker Do you have squash bug there? They are especially bad on maxima varieties, of which Queensland Blue is one. There’s a very similar one popular in Turkey, and it really is a wonderful squash.

@@sazji I grow pumpkins in Queensland, Australia and I've never heard of this squash bug thing! I'll have to google it! 😀

You are evil. 😂

Hahahaha!!! I was just thinking of that for myself. LOL

My daughter grew spaghetti squash. Just a few plants. Froze a lot and still had lots to give away. Did extremely well.

My hens forage on my 2/3 acre mini homestead. They're notorious for shredding my vining crops right when I'm thinking they'll produce. They don't see the plant as edible, but to look for bugs, they scratch their way right through good plants. I've learned to protect the centers of the plants at least. As it gets later in the season, the trailing ends seem to fair better.

Ducks are better for that, they love the bugs and they don’t tear everything up

Thank you so much for sharing. I will make soup using those ingredients I have plenty of at the moment.

yes Tansy would help, but, they would have to burn more holes in their row covers to plant the tansy, but, it might be worth it.

I love buttercup squash.

Barbara Rickman amen. Yes it does. Grandparents let it sit one year in every seven.

They are in the Cucurbita moschata family and have denser stems and are more resistant to SVB's

I grew the Seminole pumpkin last year in Georgia. Was the best winter squash I ever grew! Bug & disease proof and they store for a year! I still have 3 pumpkins that I harvested last June. In my opinion it is better tasting than the Butternut types. It's taste is a cross between a butternut & a sweet potato. We love them and are going to grow again. And it is productive

I would like the recipe :)

Me, too 😁

Bernice Caplinger will post tomorrow

Me too. Sounds wonderful.

The little ones make great pickles, I always used a dilly bean type recipe with them, but made some bread and butter ones this year and they are fantastic. I love these patty pans, Waltham Butternut, and the Japanese Kabocha squash.

Amy Allen Here in SE Wisconsin also. They are my favorite.

OMG they're so delicious....(Chippewa falls WI:)

Very good squash !! ..( Phillips,Wi.)

thanks for the tip!

I will have to try this.

i tried that this year, didn’t work. ☹️

Geri Bouwman has a really good point. One year my zucchini and cantaloupe were planted too close. (25 feet) I ended up with really nice cantaloupe that had a zucchini (ish) taste. We called them Zucchaloupe. Who knows what those seeds would have produced. Growing up in Amish country, Neck Pumpkins were the only winter squash I knew. Now I go home every now and then to add to my seed collection. Some seed companies call it Crooked Neck. Vines grow HUGE. Squash winters over in my pantry well into the following spring. They are much like a butternut, but MUCH larger.

Guineas too! I saw them in the video. I would lead them to the bugs if they don't find them. My dad has guineas to control ticks where he is.

Betty Sams YES! Agreed!

@@MsLookinup cook it just like pumpkin. It makes a good faux sweet potato casserole also.