Lessons learnt.. Plant in a half dozen ball zukes, and by the end of July you have 100 pounds of zukes to handle, but by the end of August you have 1 million squash bugs that ate your best zuke plants. And it's time to let the best of your zukes still on the plant ripen to seed harvesting.

Another lesson.. that random volunteer squash turns out to be something you have no idea how that squash got there considering you have never grown it before.

Straw bale squash growing is not as easy as it sounds.

You might have bugs causing wilting. But often the cause of wilting is not enough soil space per squash plant. Their roots need to roam far and wide like their vines do. And watering needs to be done across the entire root zone, not just at the base of the plant. It requires more cultivated garden space but you will get more squashes and higher quality. Most people plant them too close together out of necessity and end up with root competition.

In backyard gardens it's almost impossible to give vining squash plants all of the root zone that they would like. I have a 15'x25' bed in which I only planted 3 Crown Prince squash vines this year. They completely carpeted that bed and have vines running 20' outside that bed in every direction. They have even climbed to the top of a nearby 8' tall evergreen hedge. Wilting was never an issue until the vines made significant progress outside of the main bed, and it's still not too bad. The roots still have about 400 square feet but I think they would like more if they could get it.

No true. I know the roots are not getting enough water. The soil is just plain and I should have dug in some compost. And the soil is very dry. Same with the tomatoes... No competition. But some competitions from the tree roots....