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Re: gourds

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

I have grown gourds for 2 summers with pretty good success.  It is
interesting because the flowers open in the evening and these destructive
little bugs hide in them and try to ruin everything.  So, you have to go out
and squash bugs every evening in order to get the crop.  

The first summer I let them ramble and they spread over a 12 x 12 foot area
and then strated climbing the bushes.  Second summer I put them in a 2 x 20
foot bed made of railroad timbers and snaked a fence of green coated
hardware cloth down the middle.  THey climbed that and reached for the
square foot beds with the tomatoe and bean poles and crawled all over the
blueberry bushes.

Got about a dozen good gourds each summer.  Left them on the vine until all
leaves were dead, and then brought them into the garage to dry.  Took some
to school to show the kids and found that they dried about 3 times as fast
in the dry school atmosphere (air, not subject matter was dry)

THis summer I want to grow some in the garden at school, but I want a BIG
frame for them to climb on.  Thinking of joining two 8 foot boards at one
end with a strap hinge, and making two or four of these sets.  THen, think
of setting up two sets of two hinged boards like 2 giant letter A's and
connecting them on the sides by nailing on thin little boards horizontally
(about 4 on each side).  Then, I think I could staple chicken wire up one
side and down the other and plant the seeds in something like a 2 x 3 raised
bed at the base of each side.  Sort of like a tall pup tent with a planter
on each side.  Then the kids could have a tunnel to go through with gourds
hanging down onthe inside if things work well.

We planted a three by twelve raised bed with jack-be-little pumpkins  one to
a square and fortunately they didn't all sprout!  What did sprout is rapidly
covering everything those little tendrils can grab.  THey look gorgeous!

Vasha
zone 8ish

At 08:43 PM 6/14/99 EDT, you wrote:
>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>Has anyone tried growing these?  Would one grow them vertically as squash or 
>let them sprawl everywhere?  Are they as productive as squash and zucchini?  
>TIA
>-Sonya
>Northwest Arkansas
>
>
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Vasha Rosenblum
South Shades Crest School
3770 S. Shades Crest Road
Hoover, AL 35244


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