What I
am offering

Plant
Information

Growing
Information

Video

I'm offering 1.5 grams of seed, or 10 + from my 2016 harvest, grown organically, using no-till techniques in my hand made hot compost/potting soil and worm castings. With scarification the seeds can sprout in 24 hours. My favorite method is to clip the "wings" off the tip of the seed, planting immediately. Size and quantity of fruits depend on the conditions in which the vines are grown.

These gourds are particularly fecund, but not, to my experience, large in size. These gourds average approximately 1 to 1.5 feet (300 to 450mm) in length and can be 6 inches (150 mm) in width. These gourds are good for making bottle shaped crafts. Once cleaned out, the whole shell can be soaked in beeswax, and will hold liquids, for example.

The Gourd is possibly the oldest cultivated plant known. It's certainly the oldest plant to be grown by almost every culture in the world. The biggest mystery is how this seed made it to other places in the world before the age of exploration. The same species of plant was grown in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America before being discovered by Europeans in the 15th century. Finds in Peru date gourd usage from 15,000 to 13,000 years ago.

Native American Indians grew these plants, developing many forms. The most familiar to us is the Birdnest form, used mostly to house Purple Martins, North America's largest swallow. This relationship is so old, Purple martins east of the Mississippi are completely dependent on Humans to provide housing for them. Gourds are tropical plants, and for them to make it around the Bering Land Bridge at the end of the last Glacial period, popularly known as the Ice Age, has mystified scientists for years. The long maturation period and intolerance to frost would have killed the plants long before seed would set.

Gourds produce a hard shell that protects the material inside, and also keeps that material from drying out quickly. Theorists have tested seed that would have been inside the gourds to float over from Africa and have found it possible they survived the 8 months it would have taken to make it to the new world tropics. After extensive DNA testing, scientists decided the gourds we find growing in the

tropics of the new world are more closely related to the African wild gourds than the ones that reached Asia. So one way they would have made it to the Americas would be to have floated over, then be spread around by animals that would distribute the seeds in their dung.

Native American Hawaiians also grow gourds, called "pohue," and traditionally are used in the making of Ipu hula drums, water carriers, bowls, platters, storage, and other items. Having a long tradition in gourds, Hawaii also decorates them in "Pawehe" a process of staining the shell of the fruit to create patterns and images.

Gourds can be started in starter pots, then transplanted to the mound or bed when the soil warms, but they can also be started in the soil, or both. The soil needs to be a minimum of 65°F (18°C) for germination, optimal growing soil temperature is 75 to 90°F (24 to 32°C).

Gourds love a good rich soil. They do not like to have their roots swamped however, and do very well in hills of organic material and compost. Building a hill around 3 feet (1 meter) across, and 8 inches (200 mm) high of rotted leaves, manures, compost, and garden soil will allow the roots room to expand and keep them from sitting in water if the ground becomes waterlogged. To enhance seed and roots plants need more Potassium and Phosphorus than Nitrogen. Regular applications of manure or compost teas, urine (Urine is very nitrogen rich, enough to chemically burn roots. Urine must be diluted with water, 1 part urine to 5 or more parts water.), or other rich organic fertilizers will give the vines all the nutrition they will need.

Gourd growing is not something done in a small space. Gourd vines can outgrow a house, covering an entire side and roof. If you grow them on the ground, expect to have patches 30 feet from one

side to the other. If grown on the ground, the necks of bottle gourds will curve, if grown on a trellis, they will hang down and grow straight, giving this gourd cultivar it's name because the long straight neck gives it a bottle shape.

The Flowers of Lagenaria siceraria are imperfect, male flowers develop on the terminal vines, the female flowers, which produce the gourds, form on the axial vines. Once the vines reach 10 feet in length, they can be tipped to encourage axial growth. The female flowers are easily identified, they will have a tiny, baby gourd on the underside.

This is what to do with the gourds after they ripen. Not all the gourds will make it, but the ones that do will pretty much do this.