Re: Drying Gourds

Hi Rick,
>Anyone with experiences:
>I'd like to hear from anyone with experience drying down birdhouse gourds. 
> Any special treatments, time to harvest, or temperature ranges that are
>best?
>Thanks,
>Rick

Gourd maturity is the key to success with gourds. One cannot go by how the
gourd looks. Observing how long the gourd has been on the vine, how long it
has been since it stopped increasing in size and the hardening-off time
allowed before the first frost, are keys to my gourd growing.

I had a group of gourds to come on real early in the Spring. These were the
NK Kidseeds. The vines matured and lived out their life by the first of
August. No matter what I did to keep the vines going, they just appeared to
tell me "Hey, I'm done". At that same time, I had gourds starting to turn
brown (drying out)on these vines. This was the first time I had gourds to
go through their life span so early. 

I had another set of gourds(Stokes Seeds) where they set on the vines about
3-4 weeks later. The gourds set late and the vines went to the end of our
growing season. For me, I would obtain more of the early setting gourd seeds.

We leave our gourds on the vine till the first light frost. We have no
building to store the gourds. They are gently placed on pallets in the back
yard. Bruising will encourage rotting of the gourd. We do expect some gourd
loss because of late setting gourds. So far this year are loss has been the
lowest ever.

We never drill holes in our gourds. The holes can foster bacteria and rot.
The gourd dries from the inside out. I don't worry about the mold forming
on the gourd. It is a natural process because of the constant moisture
dissipation.

I have too many gourds to worry about a bleach spray or bath. From my
observation, we seem to grow a lighter colored gourd than others. That may
be because of our sandy soil. People with clay soil seem to have darker
gourds.

This year I hope to grow a giant gourd. Harry Hurley, who grows giant
vegetables and giant gourds has been the big talk on the Gourdpatch List. I
know that Harry does one fine job with giant gourds :-)
I have 2 of those beauties sitting in my living room. Now I just have to
get the lead out and start painting them.

I would like to say thank you to Wendy for giving me the heads-up on this
topic. I have been lurking a long time and not always reading my pumpkin mail.

I would like to say hello to Duncan and Marv. 
They have been great helpers and friends to hubby and I. 

If any of you have any further questions, you may e-mail me. 
or better yet
I will be a better participant. You guys share a volume of wonderful
information. Thank you!!!

I must run now to my real job. I have listed a couple of my web sites that
may be of some help. 
http://users.owt.com/jdixon/growing.htm
http://users.owt.com/jdixon/story.htm

Have a nice day.

Jeanie
jdixon@oneworld.owt.com
http://users.owt.com/jdixon/
Pasco, Washington
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