The usual suspect is lack of pollination and that is likely the case here. Remember that the male blossom must open on the same morning with the female blossom for pollination to occur. Furthermore, something or someone must move the pollen into the female flower from the male. You may not have any insects interested in the job. Check on them each morning and if you find both a male and female blossom open then pull the male blossom off, strip off its petals to expose its large pollen-covered anther, and then gently swizzle it around inside the female flower around the weird-looking thing in there. If that doesn't do it... then I don't know what.

I actually have the opposite situation. I have no male blossoms anywhere in the neighborhood yet my Butternuts set big seedless fruits. I can't figure it out.

Thanks tcstoehr.

The thing is, since those 2-3 aborted female babies, I haven't seen a single female blossom. I've never had this problem before. This year, I'm growing them up a trellis. Maybe there's something they don't like about that?? Are there insects that, say, love cucumbers and tomatoes, but not squash? I have a big garden and don't have a pollination problem anywhere else. I usually have about 8-10 male squash blossoms all the time........just no female ones anymore. I've seen online that people have success growing these up a trellis, but who knows.....maybe sometimes they sense something is amiss that high off the ground, and just don't make females?

I don't want to name the organic seed company that I bought these from, since it may not be their problem at all......but I did email them and asked about what was going on, and she said that they tend to produce fruits later in the season, and then grow quickly. But geez......it's almost august and there's no sign of even babies, except for this one squash.......and it's probably several pounds now. Are there some conditions (soil/weather, etc.) where the plant feels that their progeny just wouldn't make it, so they don't put out female blossoms? Is it possible it's not getting enough sun? I would guess it's getting at least 6 hours.

Everything is a little late this year, weather-wise, but I'm not sure there's enough time left for a butternut squash to grow to adulthood in the next few months. Am I wrong?

Sorry for all the questions......I just find this very curious and want to understand things.

Thanks!

It is possible that other flowers in the area are drawing the bees' attention away, but in my experience squash blossoms are VERY attractive to bees. They spend all day hovering between a few blossoms in my squash patch despite a field of dandelions all around. But if you don't have any female blossoms, it doesn't matter. And why that would happen is anybody's guess. Six hours of sun is not great but it is adequate. And I doubt height has anything to do with it. We're still in July so there's still adequate time. Blossoms that set in August can grow a large fruit quite quickly especially in the absence of many others on the vine. My advice going forward is to keep your eyes peeled for female blossoms and hand pollinate them as they arrive, unless you see bees buzzing around them already.

Thanks tcstoehr. This morning I went out and there were soooo many male blossoms. Then I saw a female! There were little ants on it. So I got a male thingamabob and did what you said. Then I saw 2 other female blossoms that hadn't opened yet. So maybe my memory is just bad and it take them this long in the past. So.......I guess I won't give up just yet. I just hope the season is long enough for the ones not born yet to mature. Butternut squash in the middle of winter is soooo good!

Thanks for your help!