Growing Gourds

Gourds have the same general habit of growth as pumpkins and squashes and should have the same general cultural treatment, except that most species require some form of support or trellis to climb on.

Gourds are used in making dippers, spoons, ladles, salt and sugar containers, and many other kinds of household utensils. They are also used for birdhouses and the manufacture of calabash pipes. But they are of interest chiefly because of their ornamental and decorative possibilities.

Gourds are tender annuals that thrive in areas where the temperature is 70 to 85°F ( 21 to 30 C). About 100 to 180 days are required to mature most varieties. Starting plants in containers will lengthen the season and improve quality for the long season types.

The thin-shelled, or hard-drying, gourds are the most durable and are the ones that most commonly serve as decorations. The thick-fleshed gourds are more in the nature of pumpkins and squashes, and are almost as perishable.

The thin-shelled gourds of the Lagenaria group are gathered and cured at the time the shells begin to harden, the fruits become lighter in weight, and the tendrils on the vines near the gourds begin to shrivel and dry. For best results, give the gourds plenty of time to cure. Some kinds require 6 months or a year to cure.

The thick-shelled gourds of the Cucurbita group are more difficult to cure than the thin-shelled ones. Their beauty is of short duration; they usually begin to fade after 3 to 4 months. All types of gourds should be handled carefully. Bruises discolor them and cause them to soften and decay.

Like squash, gourds like light, well-drained soil, but will settle for less. In Carolina red clay, a raised bed can help, because the soil warms sooner in the spring. A soil test will show whether you need to lime or make nutritional additions. Gourds like a pH range of 5.8-6.2.

Gourds don't like weeds or drought. Diseases like bacterial wilt, anthracnose and mildew strike gourds. You can control by cleanliness and eliminating disease carriers--like cucumber beetles, carriers of bacterial wilt.

Each gourd vine bears male and female flowers.The male flowers appear first. You can tell the difference because female flowers have a small gourd shape beneath petals. The first vine that grows will have more male flowers than female.

Cut the vine at about 10 feet (3 m) long to get more female flowers--and more gourds. Insects (and industrious gourd gardeners) carry pollen from male to female flowers. Bees have been the most frequent pollinators, but bee mites have cut local populations. Don't kill any more by using the insecticide, Sevin, on blossoms, because it is hardest on bees.

Other insects, even enemies like cucumber beetles and squash bugs, are frequent pollinators as well. The more pollinations, the more fruit and the more seed. Pollen can be gently transferred with an artists' paintbrush or a cotton swab or by picking the male flower and carrying pollen to the female. Generally, the largely the gourd, the fewer you'll get per vine: one bushel and 100 bananas, for example.

Hardshells mature in 110-130 days, so plant as soon as the soil warms in the spring. In the North Carolina Piedmont, late April through mid-June is good. Follow recommendations for planting winter squash. Too early, and your seed can rot. Too late, and the gourd will not be mature at frost.

Hardshell gourd seed are generally a heavy, ridged, shield shape. Gourds of recent African origin, like basketballs, have a black seed shaped like watermelon seed. Soaking overnight can speed germination. Starting seed indoors in peat pots can also lengthen the growing season, but gourd roots are deep and wide, so give the seedlings room.

All gourds sprawl. A hardshell can grow a 100-foot-long (30 m) vine in a single season. Most growers recommend spacing in hills 6 feet (2 m)apart in rows at least 4 feet (1.3 m) apart.

One Guinness Book of Records gardener plants a single dipper in a 10' x 10' (3m x 3m) square. Plant 4-6 seeds about twice the length of the seed. Keep moist. Seed typically germinate in 8-10 days, but can sprout as long as six weeks after planting.

Most early growth is underground, so don't despair if you don't see much happening the first month or so. Black fabric mulch keeps weeds down in the expanses between the hills and raises soil temperature.

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