Dwarfed squash plants... What's going wrong?

I'm still relatively new to gardening, and I'd like your opinion on a problem I'm seeing right now.

I love zucchini and other squash so I planted loads in my no dig beds, and some overflow of pumpkin wherever I had a place that seemed suitable. Now my squash plants are all staying tiny and producing just very little. The plants outside my established beds are producing more like I would expect from previous years, putting on healthy growth.

Am I dealing with persistent herbicides that made it into my compost on fruit peelings like pineapple skin? Or is there something else going on because I'm planting squash in a bed where I also had squash last year? (Along with other plants) Or something I haven't thought of?

Sorry, no pictures. I haven't figured out how to do that here yet.

Hard to tell. Squash do tend to grow slowly for quite a while until they suddenly take off. Maybe they are too crowded, or not getting enough sun?

I find squash to be very fickle things. They like to pout if they don't like the location, the weather is too cold, too hot, too dry, too wet, I disturbed their roots too much when planting out,I didn't harden then off long enough, I hardened them off too long, I gave them a funny look and now they are offended...

That said, I've had great success growing squash but I plant them in lots of different locations and over a period of time to hedge my bets. I also found that squash planted by children always grow better than ones planted by myself (I'm not joking!). And random ones that are neglected in out of the way places, like the chicken coop, the edge of an overgrown blackberry hedge, or two inches of non-irrigated soil over a former gravel parking pad. See, lots of weird places.

So if this is your first year growing them, don't despair and try again next year in a couple different place and different time. This year might be a wash though. I've found that if they are going to start growing and producing, it will happen within a few weeks or they will just stay that size the rest of their lives.

You might want to dig up one of the plants and check the roots. Sift through the soil and look for grubs that could be eating the roots or if the roots are underdeveloped.

So, I feel kinda foolish
The weather here has been really dry this summer, and I have watered a bit to compensate
When I went to plant some fall crop last week, I found out that my soil had just completely and utterly dried out. No wonder my squash plants weren't producing well!
I would have expected them to start hanging or browning when they don't get enough moisture, but now I've learned that that's not the case

Oh well, live and learn

Thanks anyway for the helpfull suggestions here