butternut squash

[Pudcat]

I have a fairly large patch of butternut squash with lots of blooms but very little fruit and there do not seem to be many flowers with a small fruit behind. Can anyone advise me?

[boxtops]

They take a lot of water, and I mean a lot! do you have bees or other pollinating insects to set the fruit? if not, you might need to cross-fertlise the flowers with a paintbrush.

[Pudcat]

Thank you Boxtops,
Yes they do have a quite a lot of water and I have tried recently polinating with a paintbrush I have also cut a lot of the huge leaves of thing maybe that the bees etc are unable to see the flowers easily, but in previous years I have generally noted that behind each bud there is a small round ball denoting that they are female flowers but they don't seem very evident this year.

[madmaggot]

I have the same problem Pud.
Production of male flowers rather than female is apparently because the plant is stressed in some way, ie planted too closely or as suggested above, not enough water.
I have also been told that they should not be planted in the same bed as tomatoes; mine are in a greenhouse bed with tomatoes so I'm assuming that this is the problem with mine.