what is makeing the flowers fall off my sqush plants?

Answer 1

The Hot weather, among other things.
A mid summer heat wave...high day and night time temperatures will cause plant stress. More male flowers grow in hot temperatures than female flowers, which reduces chances of pollination. Even when plants are pollinated, the tiny pollinated fruit may abort as a result of the heat. Extreme temperatures during flowering ( below 55 degrees or above 85 degrees), can reduce fruit set.

A heat wave can also deter bees from their job, making hand pollination more important. At the bottom of the blossom of a female is a tiny vegetable or fruit (ovary). If the blossom is male there is nothing there. Pollination will be more successful if several male flowers are used to pollinate one female flower. Pollination needs to be made to all segments of the female flower. Do this before 10 a.m. because pollination carried out at the end of the morning during warm weather has very little chance of success because the pollen will have heated up and fermented and will no longer be viable.

Make sure you don't water overhead early in the morning so the male flowers can have a chance to pollinate the female flowers.
Male flowers are short lived. They will open up before dawn and will close completely by mid-morning.The male flowers possess both pollen and nectar, the female flowers only nectar. If the plants are watered from overhead early in the day, that may prevent all further pollination for that day. Everything gets washed off of the short-lived male flowers. Replacement flowers do not open then until the following morning.

Too much shade or not enough light is another cause of poor fruit set. Most fruiting vegetables do best in full sun all day --- they need at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight. Other factors such as too much nitrogen can delay the setting of fruit on the vine.
Good luck! Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I learned this a couple of year ago with my plants. The flowers that fall off are male, non producing flowers for pollination only. The ones that stay on will produce squash. Wierd, huh?!

Answer 3

Another key point to growing healthy squash plants is to make sure you plant them on a small hill .... overwatering will kill your squash plants if they are standing water.

A neighbor had this problem last year - too much water!