Cougete/Zuchini Critical Mass

[Antipodean Bucket Farmer]

Hi Everybody,

I have noticed that courage/zucchini plants have beautiful but very-short-lived and sex-segragated flowers.

This contrasts with the long-lived (but smaller - maybe a connection?) flowers on tomato and capsicum plants.

So, it seems that courage/zucchini have a serious number/statistic chance problem. A pollinated/mature courage/zucchini apparently needs one female flower and one nearby male flower open at the same time.

So, to get good numbers of pollinated female flowers (for good yields), how many plants are needed?

So, "critical mass" would mean, how many plants are needed to create a good chance for any individual female flower to get pollinated (and thus make a mature fruit.)

I hope that I am being clear. Thanks...

[Steve]

Clear enough. I know exactly what you mean. We don't have too many bees around here so I often resort to hand pollination early in the season. It's a little frustrating when there are a couple of female zucchini blossoms but no male blossoms open that day. I also grow a few pumpkins and I can often borrow some pollen from them. Later the plants get bigger and produce more flowers. (The bees start finding them too.) At that point it seems that just 3 plants will get most of the female blossoms pollinated. By then they are producing so well that it's almost a blessing if a few flowers miss.

Steve

[Claire Petersky]

Generally, I find that having three plants has been sufficient. I wish I felt like one would be sufficient, because three zucchini plants makes more zucchini than we can really eat. In fact, it's hard for me to imagine hoping that a zucchini flower gets polinated, because once zucchini plants get going, there's really no stopping them until the season's over.

Sometimes I wish I knew those southwestern US squash blossom recipes, so I could nip the process literally in the bud. The other way to go is to pick the zukes when they're babies. The problem is that there's always one that grows hidden behind the plant's large leaves, and by the time you've spotted it, it's the size of an engorged baseball bat. Then, all it's really good for is making zucchini bread, or ritual vegetable sacrifice (see:

["loki" aotearoa.invalid]

[snip]

And then there are deep fried battered zucchini flowers, that are scrummy and further reduce the number of flowers around. ;-)

Cheers

Brevity is ...

Cheers, Loki

[Steve]

further reduce the number of

True

Yes it ...

[Antipodean Bucket Farmer]

further reduce the number of

Really? I should try that. What is your recipe?

Thanks...

[Claire Petersky]

scrummy and further reduce the number of

Here's one:

Ingredients:

8 Zucchini Squash Blossoms

BATTER:

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup milk 1 egg 1/8 teaspoon salt

CHEESE FILLING:

3 oz. Goat cheese 3 oz. Cream Cheese 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 1 Clove Garlic, minced or pressed Salt and Pepper to Taste

Vegetable Oil for Frying Salt and Pepper to Taste Salsa for Garnish

Directions:

First, in a medium bowl, stir together the flour, water, milk, egg and salt. Let sit for one hour.

Dip the squash blossoms in cold water and drain them thoroughly on paper towels. Remove the stamens from the male blossoms.

In a small bowl, mix all filling ingredients until smooth. Fill each squash blossom with 2 teaspoons of filling.

Fill a heavy saucepan or skillet with oil to a depth of 2 inches. Heat over medium heat to 375 degrees. Dip a few squash blossoms into batter, covering entire blossom, and drop into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, about 1 minute, turn over and fry on the other side. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining blossoms, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Add salt and pepper and serve immediately

[Loki]

il Wed, 09 Feb 2005 23:16:47 -0500, Steve ha scritto:

reduce the number of

:-) I was elsewhere and couldn't remember the tag fully... brief as it is.

[Loki]

il Thu, 10 Feb 2005 12:16:50 -0800, Antipodean Bucket Farmer ha scritto:

reduce the number of

My sister's really. Try tempura batter. It's just flour and water and salt in a thin batter.