"Steve Peek" wrote in message
...

Hang on, if they are already 2-3in they have been fertilised, you
wouldn't
get that if you had a pollination problem. The word "squash" means
different things to different people but I will take a stab in the dark
and
say blossom end rot.

Do they turn brownish and go soft and sink in starting at the flower
end?
Do they then stop growing or fall off the vine? If so then you have BEM
caused by a deficiency of Calcium. This can be due to erratic watering
or
lack of calcium in the soil. Google "blossom end rot" for a zillion
hits.

David

David,
I don't know what kind of squash you have, but my crooknecks are 3 inches
and the scaloppini are silver dollar size before they bloom .
Steve



I have "button squash" which may be called "pattypan" and I have crooknecks.
I don't want to break the normal harmony of RGE with a silly tis, tisnt,
tis, tisnt, type argument but I have not seen a squash form fruit before the
flower.

Sure the flower may continue looking quite healthy for some time after the
fruit starts to swell at the base, the flower may even grow after
pollination (I haven't measured) but the flower does not appear from the end
of the fruit after the fruit is formed. The female flowers do have a bulge
at the base before pollination but this is not a fruit.

My understanding is that squash are not parthenocarpic. They are monoecious
and if the pollen from a male flower does not reach the female flower the
female will wither and die without forming fruit.

I suggest that when your squash are flowering you tag some females while
they are just stems with a bulge and watch their development daily, I think
you will find the flower comes first.

David