Squash free squash

[thepoppy]

Hi, I'm growing squash for the first time, and I'm getting loads of flowers, but they all fall off before any 'fruit' develops. I don't know what variety it is, I was growing several of 6 different ones, and the damn slugs got all but this one plant (and nearly everything else I've tried to grow)
Anyone got any ideas on what's going wrong?

They need fertilising I think , Don't know exactly (thread on here somewhere about pumpkins) something about a male and female flowers

Thanks nikkie

Have grow squashes and pumpkins a few years and agree with nikkie, you needed to pollinate them by hand. Take a male flower (one with no fruit developing behind it) and dab its pollen onto the female flower (you guessed it, the one with the fruit behind it).
I find I have more success with one or two varieties. Don't know if cross pollination works.
Probably a bit late now to start but if you've still got flowers it can't hurt to try.

Thanks Chestnutty, I've only had male flowers up until when I checked yesterday when I saw the first female one. Of course every time I went out there the flowers were closed! There's loads of developing flowers so hopefully I'll be able to catch them open over the next couple of days. Everything's been so late tis year. My corn's only just starting to develop too. And everything was planted out in april/may, so it's not like I left it too late.

If the female flower is open you can just rip open a male flower and that should work. ( Mine never complain anyhow!)