Squash question

[hamamelis]

Would removing a few of the male flowers from my squash plants make the female flowers develop faster, or the already fertilized ones grow more?

I seem to have an incredible amount of male ones coming, and I'm wondering if it would help my crop to take 'em off, seeing as everything's growing quite slowly, and I've not got much fruit on there yet.

[Nicos]

I remove most of the male flowers as they appear so the plants don't waste too much energy.
They do tend to be the first to appear.
I like to leave at least one male flower to 'do it's business' - or you can give a helping hand!

When you say 'squash' what variety are you talking about????

[PyreneesPlot]

I don't bother and seem to get four or five big fruit per vine. The more places for bees to feed the better is my excuse for laziness.
Although this year is really slow - only a few fruit set and last year we already had some monsters by mid July.

[hamamelis]

Got a few different squash- a Balmoral? summer squash that so far I've not seen a single female flower on (about 20 males ), and a few varied winter squashes that I forgot to label, most of which have one fruit on, but a few female buds.

[Nicos]

I'd nip them off so the plant has to kick start.
( I presume you are very confident with male/female ID?? )

[Jeanied]

I made the teacher who runs the gardening group at school giggle by telling her 'the boys all show up early and hang around smoking fags and telling tall tales before the girls show up'. I leave them on, mainly as evidence the plant is doing well.