jonnys

Give them some time. Until the pollinators are out in full force, you aren't going to have many or any squash, even if your plants are producing male and female flowers. As you know, the females are the ones with the tiny squash at the base. You can hand-pollinate a few of them to get earlier fruits. The GardenWeb link at the bottom shows how to do it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hand Pollination of Squash

Agree. Check out this FAQ too for more details.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to hand pollinate and why?

Thank you both for your input, though the problem is not with pollination. I have hand pollinated cucumbers before and it seems as its the same as the links you both provided. My problem is that the male flowers will bloom like normal, but as the females are coming in, they never open so there is no way to pollinate them. Before they ever open they turn brown and fall off. Could I be wrong and this is a problem with pollination, or could it be something else? Thanks, Jon

Are you sure they are not opening Jon?

Check them early in the morning (15 minutes - 30 minutes after the sun comes up).

I had thought mine were not opening last year, turns out I was only looking at them when i got home from work, and they had closed up for the day. But if I went down and checked them in the morning prior to leaving for work, they were all open begging for pollination :)

Just a thought.

Yes, they don't open for long - couple of hours - and only in the early morning.

Sorry about the duplicate link post above. I thought Anney's was to the squash/gourd forum.

If you can't catch them then to hand pollinate you can often still un-twist them and do it later. Not ideal but it will work. I can't get all of mine done in the morning before they start to close back up.

Dave

I had a similar problem last year, and it turns out that it was some sort of deficiency. I applied some fertilizer (Neptune's Harvest fish fertilizer, I think) and I got better results.

Another possibility ~ Are you letting the ground dry a bit (a few inches down) between waterings or keeping it wet? Too much water would cause fruit to abort as well.

After a closer inspection, Im guessing the plant aborts the first fruits. I took a look and there is now a much larger fruit that is just blooming. My guess is the plant aborts all the really small fruits at the beginning, might this be possible? The ones that fell off were not even an inch long. The one that is blooming now is nearly 2.5".