How do you dry birdhouse gourds?

[jal_ut]

How do you dry birdhouse gourds?
I have a request to grow some birdhouse gourds next summer. I have never grown those before and wonder how you dry them?

[joshbuchan]

From About.com Gardening

Whatever type of gourd you are growing, it is ready for harvesting when the stems dry out and turn brown, Cut the gourds with a few inches of stem intact, Harvest all gourds before a hard frost. Immature gourds will not last long, but frost will ruin soft skin gourds entirely and even a light frost can alter the color of hard skin gourds and affect their ability to dry, Discard bruised and spoiled gourds. They will just begin to decay in storage.

well good luck

Josh

Edited by webmaster. Shortened article quoted, added link to authoritative article.

[jal_ut]

Josh, thanks for taking the time to reply, however it is not nice to cut and paste someones work with out giving them credit. It is best to post a link.

If you grow gourds, and if you dry gourds, I would like to hear your methods.

[webmaster]

Thanks, jal_ut. In general it's fine to quote a very small but relevant portion of an article and to link to the source. It's good etiquette to respect the copyright of other websites.

[gixxerific]

Jal I asked a similar question last year and Applestar gave this reply. I have a few in my basement now and they are full of mold, you can hear the seeds rattling around in there. I figure around spring time I will open them up and (hoping for the best) see if they are good to go. They do seem pretty strong. I need some bird house around here, we all do especially if we have a garden.

[jal_ut]

I build birdhouses out of pine, but a friend asked me to grow some gourds. I think she wants to paint them and make some interesting bird houses.

[gixxerific]

I need to get building some birdhouse myself, but as you said the gourds would make some pretty cool "natural" bird houses.

Got any pics of the ones you made, I have been too busy with garden related stuff to think about building any. Okay, okay not too busy maybe too lazy. And before anyone says anything birdhouses could be considered gardening related, I already said I was being lazy.

[jal_ut]

OK on the pics, I put them in the Wildlife Garden section.