- 54 minutes ago
Grow zucchini vertically and turn a sprawling, disease-prone plant into a neat, space-saving harvest. Elias shows how a simple stake and soft twine can lift bush zucchini and summer squash off the ground, improve airflow, reduce dampness, and make picking easier all season long.
The method is practical and old-fashioned: set a stout stake deep before planting, place the young squash close to it, tie the main stem loosely as it grows, and strip away the lower leaves to keep the base open and dry. He also explains why powdery mildew often starts in crowded, moist foliage, how to tell true mildew from natural silvery leaf markings, and why frequent harvesting keeps zucchini tender and productive. If a plant is already sprawled and struggling, it can often be rescued by removing diseased leaves and standing it up on a stake.
This is a hands-on gardening guide for small backyard gardens, raised beds, container growing, vertical gardening, and anyone looking for better squash growing tips. It also covers pollination, bee activity, hand pollinating female flowers, and the limits of staking for heavy winter squash and pumpkins.
SEO: zucchini vertical growing, grow zucchini on a stake, bush squash trellis, vertical gardening tutorial, powdery mildew prevention, squash plant care, summer squash growing tips, hand pollination for zucchini, small space gardening, vegetable garden support system.
The method is practical and old-fashioned: set a stout stake deep before planting, place the young squash close to it, tie the main stem loosely as it grows, and strip away the lower leaves to keep the base open and dry. He also explains why powdery mildew often starts in crowded, moist foliage, how to tell true mildew from natural silvery leaf markings, and why frequent harvesting keeps zucchini tender and productive. If a plant is already sprawled and struggling, it can often be rescued by removing diseased leaves and standing it up on a stake.
This is a hands-on gardening guide for small backyard gardens, raised beds, container growing, vertical gardening, and anyone looking for better squash growing tips. It also covers pollination, bee activity, hand pollinating female flowers, and the limits of staking for heavy winter squash and pumpkins.
SEO: zucchini vertical growing, grow zucchini on a stake, bush squash trellis, vertical gardening tutorial, powdery mildew prevention, squash plant care, summer squash growing tips, hand pollination for zucchini, small space gardening, vegetable garden support system.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Zucchini and squash will give you more food off a single plant than near anything in the garden,
00:06but they come with two miseries every gardener knows.
00:09First, they sprawl, a single plant flinging its great vines and giant leaves clear across the bed,
00:16swallowing ten feet of ground and smothering everything near it.
00:20And second, they sicken, that whitish powdery mildew creeping over the leaves
00:26till the whole plant rots down to nothing by midsummer, just when it ought to be feeding you.
00:33Well, today I am going to show you an old, simple way that beats both those miseries at a single
00:39stroke,
00:40that shrinks that sprawling monster down to the footprint of a single stake,
00:45and keeps the disease off besides, so your one plant grows up neat and tall and healthy
00:51and pours out zucchini all season.
00:54And you can do it with a stick and a bit of string.
00:58I am Elias, and I have grown squash both ways, sprawled and staked,
01:03and I will tell you the staking is the better way by far for most gardens,
01:08an old trick of growing up instead of out,
01:12and once you have done it, you will not go back to the tangled mess on the ground.
01:16So let me show you the whole of it, and I will even show you how to rescue a sprawling,
01:22sickly plant you already have.
01:25Quick word before I go further.
01:27The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:33I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:37The book is the long version.
01:39If you want it, it is there.
01:41I will not mention it again.
01:43My father grew his squash up stout steaks along the garden fence,
01:48and I remember as a boy thinking at a strange sight,
01:52squash standing up like soldiers when everyone else's lay sprawled in a tangle on the ground.
01:58But come August, when the neighbor's squash were a mildewed ruin collapsing into the dirt,
02:04my father's stood tall and green and heavy with zucchini still, clean as you please.
02:10Give a plant air and light, Elias, he would say, and it will hardly ever sicken.
02:16I have grown my squash up ever since, so let me hand you what he knew.
02:21First, the why of it.
02:23For once you understand why growing up beats growing out, the whole method makes sense.
02:29When a squash sprawls flat on the ground, its great leaves pile on top of one another in a dense,
02:36damp tangle.
02:37No air moving through, the underneath always shaded and moist,
02:41and that still damp, crowded dark is the very thing the mildew and the rots love best.
02:48It is a sick house for the plant.
02:50But stand that same plant up tall on a stake and everything changes.
02:55The air moves freely all through it.
02:58The sun reaches every leaf, and the whole plant dries quick after a rain or a dew.
03:04And dry, airy, sunny leaves are leaves the mildew cannot get its grip on.
03:09So the staking does not just save space.
03:12It strikes at the very root cause of the disease, which is the damp and the crowding.
03:18And that is the real secret of it.
03:20Air and sun are the enemies of the mildew, and standing the plant up gives it both.
03:26Now to the doing of it, and the beauty is you need almost nothing.
03:31First, your stake.
03:32You want something stout, about three or four feet of it standing above the ground,
03:37for a loaded squash plant grows heavy, and the stake must bear it.
03:42A length of stout bamboo is fine, or a straight-cut sapling, or an old pipe or rod,
03:48whatever strong, straight thing you have about, no need to buy a thing.
03:53And drive it in good and deep and firm with a mallet, a foot down at least,
03:58for I promise you a healthy plant will hang heavy on it by summer,
04:02and a poorly set stake will topple with the whole crop.
04:06So, set your stake first, strong and deep, before you even plant.
04:11Now the plant, and here is a point that matters, the variety.
04:15You want a bush kind of zucchini or squash,
04:19one of the kinds that grows as an upright bush rather than a long, rambling vine.
04:24For a bush kind grows up a single main stem,
04:28which is just what you want to train up a stake,
04:30where a great, rambling, vining kind would fight you.
04:34So choose a bush zucchini, or a bush summer squash,
04:38and check the seed or the plant for that.
04:41Set your young plant right up close against the stake,
04:45an inch or two from it.
04:46And here is a fine old trick.
04:49Plant it deep, right up to its seed leaves,
04:52those first little rounded leaves,
04:55burying a good bit of the stem.
04:57For, like the tomato,
04:59a squash will root along that buried stem and grow the sturdier for it.
05:04Firm it in well and mulch around the base to hold the moisture,
05:08for these are thirsty, hungry plants.
05:12Now, at the start, and this surprises folk,
05:15the young plant will not seem to need tying at all.
05:18It just sits there, a low bush, for a while.
05:22Be patient, that is normal.
05:24The climbing comes later.
05:27But once it is put on six or eight inches of upward growth,
05:30and you see that main growing point starting to reach and ramp upward,
05:35that is when you begin to tie.
05:37And here is how.
05:39You take a bit of soft twine or cloth strip,
05:42and you loosely tie the main stem to the stake,
05:46not tight and choking,
05:48just a gentle loop holding it upright against the stake.
05:51And you keep at it as it grows,
05:54adding a new tie every four or five inches up the stem,
05:57so the plant climbs the stake in a series of gentle hitches,
06:02always supported,
06:03never leaning or folding over under its own weight.
06:07Tie it up as it grows,
06:08and it climbs neat and straight up its stake.
06:12Now, here is the step that does the most for the health of the plant,
06:16and you must be brave about it,
06:18the stripping of the lower leaves.
06:20As the plant grows up,
06:23you go along and cut off the lower leaves,
06:25the old ones down toward the bottom,
06:28close to the stem,
06:29leaving the bottom stretch of stem bare and clean.
06:33Folk are timid to cut off good big leaves,
06:36but hear me,
06:37this is the very heart of keeping the disease off.
06:41Those low leaves near the ground
06:43are the first the mildew and the soil-splashed rots take hold on,
06:47and they crowd the base and trap the damp.
06:51Strip them away,
06:52keep that bottom stretch bare and open,
06:55and you shut the door on the disease
06:57and let the air pour through the base of the plant.
07:00So do not fear to take the lower leaves as it climbs.
07:04It is the making of a healthy plant,
07:06and you will see the stem below go clean and barren looking,
07:10which is exactly right.
07:12Keep the bottom clean,
07:13and keep only the good upper leaves and the fruit.
07:17And picking,
07:19quick,
07:19for it is the same rule as the cucumber,
07:22pick often and pick young.
07:23A zucchini grows shockingly fast,
07:27a fine one today,
07:28a great woody club tomorrow.
07:30So you go over the plant often,
07:32every day or two in the heat,
07:34and pick them young and tender,
07:36and the more you pick,
07:38the more the plant makes,
07:39for a plant let to grow one giant seedy marrow
07:42thinks its work done
07:44and slows right down.
07:46So pick hard and pick small,
07:48and it pours out zucchini for you.
07:51Now let me tell you the honest truth about the pollination,
07:55for it trips up many a squash grower,
07:57and the source of it is often blamed wrong.
08:00A squash plant makes two kinds of flowers,
08:03the male and the female,
08:05and only the female makes a fruit,
08:07and she must get pollen from a male flower to do it,
08:11carried by the bees.
08:12So here is what folks see,
08:14little baby zucchini that start to form
08:17and then shrivel and rot off before they grow,
08:20and they think the plant is diseased,
08:22when the true trouble is poor pollination.
08:25Not enough bees came to carry the pollen
08:28to that female flower,
08:29so the little fruit was never set,
08:31and it withered.
08:32And the answer is the living garden,
08:35the very thing we always come back to,
08:38that you grow flowers among and about your squash
08:41to draw the bees in plenty
08:43and keep no poisons that would kill them,
08:45and then your flowers are well visited,
08:48and your fruit sets heavy.
08:50And in a pinch, if the bees are few,
08:53you can be the bee yourself.
08:55Pick a male flower,
08:56the one on a plain, thin stem,
08:59strip its petals,
09:00and dab its pollen right into the center
09:02of the female flowers,
09:03the ones with the tiny fruit behind them,
09:06and set them by your own hand.
09:08So if your little squash are shriveling,
09:11look to the bees,
09:12not to disease.
09:14Now a plain word on that powdery mildew itself,
09:17since it is the great fear
09:18and an honest thing that will save you a needless fright.
09:22Sometimes folks see a silvery,
09:24whitish,
09:25mottled look on their squash leaves
09:27and panic.
09:28Sure it is the mildew,
09:29when in truth,
09:30some kinds of squash
09:32simply have leaves marked with silvery white patterns
09:35by nature,
09:36and that is no disease at all,
09:38just the variety's look.
09:40So how do you tell?
09:41The true powdery mildew shows as puffs
09:44and dustings of white,
09:45like flower,
09:46and above all you find it on the undersides of the leaves,
09:50and it spreads and grows.
09:52The natural silvery marking is on the top of the leaf,
09:55in a fixed pattern,
09:56and does not spread or puff.
09:58So turn the leaf over and look beneath before you fret,
10:02and if you find those spreading white puffs,
10:04then you have the mildew,
10:06and the airy staking
10:07and the stripped lower leaves are your best guard,
10:10and a spray of watered down milk,
10:12about one part milk to three of water,
10:15sprayed on of a morning,
10:17is a fine old honest remedy to check its spread.
10:20But first,
10:21turn the leaf and be sure it is even mildew at all.
10:24Now here is a fine thing,
10:26that you need not start fresh to do this.
10:28You can rescue a squash you already have
10:31sprawling and sickening on the ground
10:33and stand it up.
10:34And it is worth doing,
10:35for a ground-sprawled plant riddled with disease
10:38can often be saved and set to bearing again this way.
10:42Here is how.
10:43First,
10:44take your knife and cut off every leaf
10:46that shows any sign of disease.
10:48Cut it close to the stem and carry it away.
10:51And do not fear how much you remove,
10:53for those leaves were dying anyway,
10:55and you are freeing the plant of its sickness
10:57and opening it up.
10:59You will be amazed how much space and air you free at once.
11:02Then drive your steak in right alongside the plant.
11:06Now a squash vine is surprisingly bendable.
11:09It will not snap easy.
11:10So you can gently lift and gather that sprawling stem
11:13and stand it up against the steak without harming it much,
11:17even if you disturb a root or two doing it,
11:20no matter.
11:20And when rescuing one already grown like this,
11:23tie the top of it to the steak first to hold it up,
11:26then work down supporting the rest.
11:29It will look a bit strange and forlorn
11:31standing there stripped and upright at first,
11:33but give it a few days and it rights itself,
11:36turns its leaves back to the sun,
11:38and carries on far healthier than it was on the ground,
11:41and in far less space.
11:43So do not tear out a sickly, sprawling squash,
11:47stand it up, and save it.
11:48Now a word on which squash this suits,
11:51for I will be honest with you about its limits.
11:54This staking is grand for the bush zucchini
11:56and the summer squashes, the upright kinds,
11:59which is most of what folk grow for the daily eating.
12:02The great rambling winter squashes and the pumpkins,
12:05the ones that send vines running 20 feet
12:08and grow fruits like boulders,
12:10those you cannot well stake,
12:12for their fruit is far too heavy to hang
12:14and their vines too long.
12:16So those you let ramble,
12:17or if you trellis them at all,
12:19you must cradle each heavy fruit
12:21in a sling of cloth to bear its weight.
12:24So stake your bush zucchini and summer squash,
12:27and let the great winter squash sprawl where it will.
12:30Use the trick where it fits.
12:32Now let me say a small plain word,
12:34not a who-profits sermon,
12:36for a zucchini is no one's scheme.
12:38But notice what this cost,
12:40a stick and a bit of string,
12:42against the two great miseries of squash it cures.
12:45There is a whole trade in selling folk fungicides and sprays
12:49to fight the squash mildew,
12:51bottle after bottle all summer,
12:54and raised beds and space savers,
12:56and this and that to fit the sprawling plant in,
12:59when a stake driven in the ground and a bit of twine
13:01strikes at the root of both troubles for nothing,
13:04by the plain old wisdom of growing up into the air and sun
13:08instead of out on the damp ground.
13:10So folk come to think the squash mildew wants a bought cure,
13:14when it wants only air and sun and a bare clean base,
13:17all free.
13:18That old knowing,
13:20that most plant disease is beaten by air and light,
13:23and not by any bottle,
13:25is worth more than a shelf of sprays.
13:28So there is the old way to grow your zucchini and squash
13:32up a stake.
13:33Drive a stout stake in deep.
13:35Plant a bush kind close against it,
13:39deep to its seed leaves.
13:40Tie the stem up gently every few inches as it climbs.
13:44Strip away the lower leaves as it grows,
13:47to keep it airy and clean and free of disease.
13:51Pick often and young.
13:53Keep flowers about for the bees so your fruit sets,
13:56or hand pollinate if you must.
13:59And if you have a sprawling, sickly one already,
14:02cut off its diseased leaves and stand it right up on a stake and save it.
14:08Do these,
14:09and one neat, tall, healthy plant on a single stake
14:12will give you more zucchini in less space,
14:16with less disease,
14:17than a whole sprawling bed ever did.
14:21Now I want to hear from you.
14:23Tell me down below whether you have grown your squash up a stake before,
14:28and how much space that sprawling plant has stolen from your garden in the past,
14:33for it steals more than folk reckon.
14:36And tell me your county,
14:37and whether the powdery mildew is the plague of your squash,
14:41as it is for so many,
14:43for the staking is the best answer to it I know.
14:46I read every one.
14:48Next time,
14:49I want to show you the keeping of the squash bugs
14:52and the vine borers off your plants the old way,
14:55those two great destroyers of squash
14:58that get into the stem and the leaves,
15:00for a staked, healthy plant is far easier to guard from them,
15:05and I will show you how.
15:07The old gardeners grew up into the air and the light
15:10wherever they could,
15:12trellising and staking their sprawling plants,
15:15for they knew that air and sun were the great keepers of health,
15:20and that a plant grown up off the damp ground
15:22stayed cleaner and bore longer than one left to sprawl.
15:27There is a quiet wisdom in that,
15:30in lifting a plant into the light
15:31rather than dosing it with cures
15:34for the troubles that the damp ground brings.
15:37The people who built this country with their hands knew that,
15:40and we are only just starting to remember it.
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