Squash flowers

[Rosendalemark]

Getting this question in early...
Last year, my crown prince and potimarron squashes must’ve produced 9 male flowers to every female. Which meant that 4 plants only produced 1 fruit each. My butternuts were more evenly sexed though. Any ideas why?

[ameno]

Cool weather is the usual cause of excessive male flowers and insufficient female ones, but that shouldn't have been a problem last year.
Water stress can cause the plants to shed their female flowers before they open (sometimes long before they open, when they are still just an inch or so long). Maybe it was that? Certainly, I had real problems with that last year. Once my squash plants had set one fruit each, they stubbornly shed all subsequent female flowers before they even got close to opening.
Their could be varietal differences, too. Butternut is a different species to the other two, after all. Although having never grown butternut myself, I couldn't say for sure.

[Rosendalemark]

Cool weather is the usual cause of excessive male flowers and insufficient female ones, but that shouldn't have been a problem last year.
Water stress can cause the plants to shed their female flowers before they open (sometimes long before they open, when they are still just an inch or so long). Maybe it was that? Certainly, I had real problems with that last year. Once my squash plants had set one fruit each, they stubbornly shed all subsequent female flowers before they even got close to opening.
Their could be varietal differences, too. Butternut is a different species to the other two, after all. Although having never grown butternut myself, I couldn't say for sure.

Thanks for this. It must’ve been water stress. I think they were getting a good drink twice a week but probably needed to be more. They looked healthy and buds weren’t dropping off. Let’s see what this year brings. Thanks again