Antipodean Bucket Farmer wrote:

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.)

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:
http://www.ebeneezer.net/ritual/vegetable/ritual.html)


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky