[Twood]

 HI
i'm growing butternut squash again this year. Last year I managed to produce 1 squash and then the frost came and game over.
So this year i'm trying again with a variety which is meant to be early!. Its called Hawk F1 of course. I was delighted to see all 3 plants had loads of flowers around the crown and was expecting great things, images of being swamped in squashes!!!. Sadly that hasn't happened. The flowers have fallen off so i'm guessing like courgettes they are the wrong flowers for fruit??
The other problem is they are producing loads of small squashes which end up rotting on the plant and so I just remove them. Does anyone know why this occurs??
Also am I at the point where I should be stopping them from spreading and encouraging them to produce fruit not greenery??
I have 3 nicely sized fruit at the moment but I was hoping for more than that I must admit. Obviously the weather up here hasn't helped this year either. Sunshine? Whats that look like
Twood

[jambop]

We have had a great summer so far,very sunny very warm, but I have to say my F1 butternut squash are not that great on the other hand my supermarket saved seed potimarron have done really well??

[mumofstig]

The other problem is they are producing loads of small squashes which end up rotting on the plant and so I just remove them. Does anyone know why this occurs??

This usually happens when the female flower didn't get pollinated, perhaps there were no male flowers at the right time, or there were no pollinating insects around on the day
If you see any female flowers and you have male flowers at the same time it maybe worth hand-pollinating the females.
Hand pollination tips here

[JayG]

Promising looking squash fruits rotting off is almost always due to lack of pollination.
Getting a bit late now to hope nature helps you out - manual pollination might save the day if they are still producing male and female flowers.

Oops - clearly agree with mum (again!)

[Twood]

ok thanks for the advice I will have to examine more closely and Mum thanks for the link really helpful.
I wasn't aware that I needed to manually pollinate. I wouldn't mind but the plot is buzzing with insects clearly the wrong sort or they have too much choice!
Twood

[JayG]

I've often noticed bumble bees seemingly getting 'high' on either the pollen or nectar of winter squash flowers and either unable or unwilling to fly off until they've slept it off. 

Don't know whether they actually eat the pollen, but certainly falling asleep in a drunken stupor isn't going to get the job you want doing done in a hurry!