Marianne's Response

Squash woes

With the season winding down I find myself with a pretty nice squash crop but an issue I can’t solve. A couple of the vines were just plain puny and when I pulled them I found roots no more than a couple of inches long. They all got an equal amount of sun, the soil was the same and they got the same fertilizer. What am I overlooking?

Posted by Ronsung on October 16, 2017

Marianne's Response

Your soil may be infested with nematodes that eat roots or  voles, moles or just poor fertility. If you see knobby bumps on the squash roots suspect nematodes. You should try rotating your crops to starve out the nematodes.  If you send a photo of the roots I may be better  at making a diagnosis. A cold winter could solve your problem and tilling the soil a bit to expose it to the winter weather can also help in some cases. Keep growing, Marianne Binetti