My Winter Squash Plants Are Not Growing, But Are Slowly Turning Yellow And Dying. What Might Be The Cause?

Question

I have winter squash plants that are not growing. I have some that I have transplanted, and over the course of about a month and a half they just slowly go from a nice green to yellow, and eventually they have no root mass left, as seen in the photos. I’ve also started a plant in the bed (not transplanted) and it germinated, produced one true leaf, but that leave has not unfurled nor has the plant grown or produced other leaves in about a month. It looks like this plant is also starting to turn yellow. I have cucumbers and zucchini growing just fine in a bed over. In the same bed as the winter squash I have some green beans that appear to be doing fine. I have been fertilizing the squash, being careful to not over-fertilize. I have also tried adding boron as I read that insufficient boron can have negative impacts on squash root growth. I have seen no changes since adding boron or fertilizing. Do you have any ideas what might be causing this?

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Answer 1

If you have beans in the same bed, I would suggest overfertilization if any extra nitrogen is given at all. Beans will fix nitrogen in the soil, making feeding with nitrogen unnecessary.

It will be best to test your soil for pH imbalances, and nutrition imbalances. Once you get results from that, then you can begin to diagnose the issue.

Here are some articles that will help:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/testing-soil.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/soil-ph-plants.htm