Rushing to Conclusions | Straw Bale Garden Update & Pruning Squash Plants 

A play date! I love it! LOL

You can use a Qtip instead of picking and peeling the flower back. Quicker and the female flower doesn't get beat up. I'm glad to see the results from the 2 different method straw bales. Quite interesting to see if anything changes for the rest of the season. Love you 2, so much fun to watch.

Play date 😂😂😂😂 awesome video! I’m trying to catch up on all your videos I just found you guys a few weeks ago and I’m obsessed 😍 I even got a water bath canner and I made jam for the first time ever because of you! You definitely gave me the confidence to try! Much love from Toronto 🇨🇦

I've been fortunate with the bugs so far this year. As a nurse, though, appreciating the use of Coban!! Also, it occurred to me how close you are to saving your own squash seed. All you have to do now is isolate the different varieties and you've got it!!

Thank you for sharing this information with us

Love hearing the birds in the background.

Totally using this tape tip and flowing this thanks so much for sharing luv from Ontario Canada xoxo zone 5a🍁☕🌱💕

You are awesome loved the video

That is an amazing tip. Thank you for sharing.

I love straw bale gardening and I can’t to a lot of lifting stooping so on I’m 63 but I put my straw bales in 300 gallon feed troughs and my plants love it the compost is great

We call that tape vet wrap. First place I ever saw it was at a store that sells veterinarian supplies to the public.

Wow Rachel those scratches on your arm still look sore :(:(. Hey I don't remember having "Play Dates" like that hahahaha- (Who am I kidding). I struggle with Zucchini every year but I still try again each year, I do the hand pollinating but ?. You are doing a great job with straw bale gardening, maybe I will try it not sure. Have a Great Day . Cheers Denise- Australia

I learned so much from this one video. Thank you for sharing. I'm new at gardening so this is just what I needed today!

Very interesting. Thanks for the update.

My cucumber plants didn’t grow fast either until the 3rd to 4th week, they are starting to grow fast now. Thank you for all of the awesome videos ❤️❤️

I've learned a lot with this video. I had no idea when you cut off the male and helped him do his thing.. Everything is flourishing and looks fabulous!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, I had no idea how to do this, it was helpfull. I enjoy so much wacthing your videos. Hugs

It would be a good idea to explain the difference between squash vine borer, which I don’t have, and squash bugs, which I have to battle a lot. You seemed to use the two terms interchangeably.

Your garden is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!

Thank you for showing how to pollinate if you don't have many bees!

Great garden update! I need to go back & check out the videos where you conditioned the bales. Thanks for sharing these tips👍

Love the update! I'm definitely planning on setting up my garden this fall with straw bales.

The bails look beautiful ! I really like growing in them . A bummer about the cuks no taking cause would have looked really cool with them all nice and full and vines

The athletic tape is such a great idea!! I’m on my second round of squash, the borer decimated my first crop.

Rachael, you could have planted your cukes in the sides of the bails.

Lots of good info. Thanks. I have always started my squash in late June as part of a crop succession and I seem to avoid the bug problems. The pruning idea does look interesting and I will try it on summer squash for sure.

A makeup brush is perfect for hand pollination. Rub, then tap into female.

Thank you for this very informative video! Love the square bale gardening experiment. Your gardens are looking great. 👍🏻😊🙌🏻 GOD Bless Y’all.

That was very helpful thank you. I wrapped mine when I first planted them but haven't trimmed off any bottom leaves. I will do that this weekend and wrap some more. I'm so excited our first squash and zucchini plants 😊

Very interesting 💕

Good information! Thanks!

Play date So cute I giggled

My cucumbers and squash not doing well at all in my straw bales but already planted more seeds and all doing well . First time straw bales gardening for me

Thank you so much for SBG update!!! That would be a great raised bed and cheaper too!!!

Nice Garden

I just had to pull all of my squash out. Totally covered in squash bugs. I have never had and issue before. Think maybe it’s because of all the rain we have had, and cooler than normal temps.😔. Hopefully can get a fall harvest.

I want to try this one day 🥰🥰🥰

Anther dust! You're like Tinkerbell for squash! Lol! Sorry, I had to go there! Peace on your doorstep!

I like the way you try different approaches in your garden. Actually it's like a mini field trial. I've done this for many, many years. When I see a particular recommended approach (compost teas, rock dust, azomite, and various other concoctions and approaches), I'll reserve a part of my garden to grow identical plants to compare one method versus the other. I've found that there are few things that beat simple compost applied in a thick layer at the end of the season. Mulching can't be beat using wood chips and/or leaves. "No dig" produces good results with much less effort (I like that because I'm lazy). Corn benefits from bi-weekly applications of liquid fish fertilizer. All of these approaches I found using the same methods you used in your straw-bale comparisons. I've never tried straw bales before but I'm intrigued. I think I'll give it a try next year - trial approach, of course. Cheers and thanks for your many entertaining and helpful posts. Thanks.

Coban or vetwrap.... find it at feed stores or walgreen's type stores or on amazon. Handy for wrapping tool handles, tying up plants, wrapping metal parts on hunting gear... just handy stuff to have around

The one you did with barn cleanout has used up all the nutrients in it. Add more. I just use my pinkie finger to pollinate things.

Hi Rachel 👋

that poor girl looked totally wrecked after her play date ordeal... LOLOL 🤣

I use an aerogaarden be the bee polinator. It is silicon so I can wash the brush and it works very well.

I also cover the stems of my squash but after I trim out the leaves(just like you) I cover them with loose mulch or straw. Did it last year and worked great... year before that I lost them all😊

If you used a q-tip you could save the male flower and stuff it

Marigolds. Our grandma planted them for repelling squash bugs. Planted them last year and it worked. Didn't have to use any chemical pesticide on my vines at all. Sprinkling the nearly spent marigold flowers on the leaves was something I came up with too . ? Not sure that helped but did have less bugs.

Great video..my goodness the squash are thriving. I aspire to have a garden like yours one day! I kept hearing soft porn music in my head when you were...well you know🤣👍🏽

Great Idea with the medical wrap..aluminum foil works also!

I seen people use a paint brush to do the pollination,I wonder would that be easier ?

I see you have the Yeti coffee cups! Those are, hands down, the greatest coffee cups ever. I have several of them and only use them now. Lol They keep it so hot for so long.

Rachel I bought the camouflage coban to wrap my stalks in...now they are hidden...🤣🤣🤣

Wow that last one with the barn cleanout correct? Looks amazing! Can I suggest an experiment with respect to the cucumber plants. Try this with one or two. With a spade shovel with the least root disturbance dig up and carry in the spade to a nice sunny spot away from the strawbales say near a fence or trelice. Put some of your organic fertilizer in the hole you make for transplanting. Water with warm water (very important to not shock it right now being transplanted) shade it from the sun for say 2-3 days with a sheer white cloth, or do it when it is calling for a couple days of rain and I almost gaurentee you won't have to buy starts!! Let me know if it works can't hurt sounds like you will maybe give up on those.

They are going on a little play date. LOL

The tape is also called vet tape

My yellow squash is all girls, and loaded with them. I hate to see them drop off, waiting for the boys to show up!

Oh my. Those turkeys got you good didnt they. Looks very sore

I live in the desert. I've been creating my own soil by composting my mushroom grow blocks. Do I still need to worry much about squash bugs? Where exactly do they come from? Are they everywhere?

I had a squash plant go crazy and I got so excited. Now I can't catch a female bloom to fertilize. So all the fruits keep shriveling. It's super discouraging!

I think the ultimate test will be what kind of harvest you get from each bale. You can have lush greenery but low harvest, or visa versa. It'll be interesting to see when they finish producing! Are you keeping track?

Hi Rachel, this is off topic, but I have a question. I am planning to can my zucchini this season, however, I’m unsure how best to preserve my harvests until I have enough for a canning day! Can you or any of my fellow followers tell me your process? I am getting zucchini daily now, but not enough yet for a big canning project. Thanks all!

My cucumber plants aren’t doing well this year! 🤷🏻‍♀️

A little play date 😂

I have always heard it called it vet wrap.

comimg on great

Is that a catalpa tree blooming behind you at the end of the video? It's beautiful.

Why do you wrap them?

I am scandalized by what I just witnessed! Such smut! 😂

If they are already producing fruit does that mean they are already pollinated ?

Never seen a squash pruned or stem wrapped ???

I look crazy loll got spaghetti squash..6 females.. only 2 males.. so the 2 males served for 3 each ahaha

Do the airplanes ever become just white noise?

Square bale gardening? lol