Last spring I went to a local hardware store and found one of those displays in the back corner of the store that holds all kinds of seeds. There were mostly gourd seeds of every variety I have ever seen. The seeds packets were covered in a fine layer of dust so I bought about 20 packs of different gourd varieties cheap. They were out of date by about 3 years according to the back of the pack. I figured I would be lucky if a few plants actually came up. I went home and planted them along the dog fence.
Now, in my defense, I have never planted gourds before. I was totally not prepared for what erupted from the soil some 2 or 3 weeks later. There was vines growing everywhere! These things took over everything that would be still long enough. My poor dog was afraid to go to sleep too close to the fence cause he was scared these vines would wrap around him while he slept.
I had to carry a machete with me whenever I went to feed him.
By mid summer, You couldn't even tell there was a dog fence there. It was literally covered in a mass of tangled vines.
I did acquire a number of unique gourds after it all was said and done. I'm not sure what to do with them, however. A lot of them are Snake Gourds and are almost 4 feet long. My wife really likes these for some reason.....
Anyway, gonna try drying them out and keep them so that I will always remember not to plant so many gourds in one small spot again.
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jal_ut
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7447
- Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
- Location: Northern Utah Zone 5
Don't cut a hole in them. Leave them on the vine as long as you can. The more mature they get on the vine, the better your chance of getting them to dry. Yes, my experience says, some will rot, some will dry. I like to put them up in the rafters of the shed and forget about them until spring. The problem I have with some gourds, is that I don't have long enough season for them.
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Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7419
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
Yes gourds need a lot of space I had a 40'x40' area for gourds this year they grew back and forth across each other and they also took over my 30'x40' corn patch. We planted several different types of gourds I don't recall the names but my wife knows them all. They have a long growing season about 120 days. We planted some hard to find gourds. The Gatlingburg TN Gourd fest had some hard to find gourds they refuse to sell the seeds because they don't want anyone else to grow them so we bought 1 gourd for $20 now we have seeds and several gourds in the garden. I have one type of gourd that smells like road kill it is pretty bad it stinks up the whole yard. We had giant gourds that attracted stink bugs by the 1000s I do believe there was probably a bushel basket of those bugs but they didn't seem to cause any problems to the plants. If you let a dog or cat small a stink bug they start foaming at the mouth, vomiting, and it sometimes gets worse. My grandfather said a stink bug can kill a dog.
Yep, those stink bugs really live up to their name, especially if you crush one.
I never knew there were so many different types of gourds. I have heard you can pick them while they are young and fry them up like squash. I haven't tried it, though. I like growing squash but I just don't like eating it.
I never knew there were so many different types of gourds. I have heard you can pick them while they are young and fry them up like squash. I haven't tried it, though. I like growing squash but I just don't like eating it.
!