More pics

In theory you can cut them off whenever you want but if they are quite large just do a few at a time like every other day to reduce the stress on the plant.

A better alternative is to thin out the leaf branches. You can trim them back to 1/2 length or even remove some of the biggest branches.

You can also thin out the leaves on the squash if necessary.

What was your original plant spacing?

Dave

As a gardener, you can always intervene and take charge.

This post was edited by seysonn on Fri, Jun 27, 14 at 0:06

Well I officially started gardening last year I built this raised bed and mixed all the compost and vermiculite peatmoss etc. however last year I did 18 to 24 inches. I had to much room I think cause I dudnt have enough canopy, later in the season it got super compact tho like early September.This year I kinda did then in zig zags. And spaced them about 14inches. When you say squash leaves what do you mean also are you saying instead of snipping off the entire sucker just to snip in in half. This was my garden last year that's why I kinda shortened the gap.

Any other thoughts on best way to handle this mess

Yeah, it's a jungle in there ;-) Do what Dave said, if your suckers (lateral branches) are that long it's going to shock the plant(s) to cut them off now, just take the small ones that are appearing now, also any branches that just have leaves (no flowers/fruit trusses), cut halfway back. If still tangled, you can start on the older suckers but I think it's best just to keep up with the young small ones.

As far as squash goes, same thing, just cut a few leaves off (though it does leave open stems) once in a while, be careful not to cut the main stem (thicker) of the plant that the leaf stems come off of.

I hope new gardeners reading this forum see this. You have such a perfect example of the fact that new beds really need time to mature. It's all about the soil and the microscopic life there in.

The pruning ? I'm a bit at a time gal. I poke and snip, tie and stake, here and there each day or three, gradually coming to some compromise. It's a nice thing to spend time doing, and feels like an accomplishment each time, but doesn't take a lot of "work".

Keep up the good work. That will be a really great soil next year.

Did you plant different varieties this year (indeterminate whereas last year were determinates)?

Thanks everyone.... Yea I trained and pulled suckers last year but had to go back and forth a lot from my house to my parents so was unable too keep up. However I sniped off a lot of the long stretchers. He'll some were 6ft long going from the back of the garden to the front. I even pulled 2hole plants out that seemed to be slacking due to no light getting into the hole garden. While my other tomatoe plants are breaking the metal cages and my hot peppers are not hot so. Maybe to much water That's my next issue also