Hangin' out with Gourds
by Kelle Carter

My how the time does fly: it seems like last month we were out in the fields beginning the summer planting and now it is harvest time! We are thoroughly enjoying the fruits of our labors—canning, drying, and freezing produce to relish during the winter months. The end of the season is a nice time to reflect upon the garden and the crops that responded well to the challenges and gifts of another one-of-a-kind season. Hands down, the most exciting crop on our Research Farm this season was the gourd trellis. I gave numerous Farm Tours this summer to groups of all ages, and no other crop group on the Farm got as many "ooohs and ahhhs" as the gourd trellis. Gourds are easy to grow and provide height and dimension to any garden. They also can create a magical place for the child in all of us.

Gourds have been cultivated for thousands of years by cultures worldwide for their utilitarian potential as a raw material for musical instruments, utensils, and storage containers. Members of the Cucurbitaceae, or Cucumber family, gourds are related to squash, pumpkins, melons, and cucumbers. There are three types of gourds: the cucurbita, the lagenaria, and the luffa. The cucurbita, also referred to simply as ornamental gourds, are found in various shapes and colors and are often used in fall arrangements. These plants bloom in the daytime and have blossom colors of orange or yellow. Lagenaria gourds include the large, utilitarian gourds such as the Bird's Nest/Bottle, Bowl, or Dinosaur. These gourds have white blossoms that bloom at night. The fruits of the lagenaria gourds are green when immature and eventually dry to a tan or brown color with a hard shell. Luffas produce a fruit with an easy-to-remove shell that exposes the well-known sponge. Luffas are the hardest gourd to cultivate as they require an extremely long growing season and can be difficult to germinate. The flower on the luffa plant is yellow.

Gourds need a growing season of 100 to 180 days, so it is important to direct seed them as soon as the danger of frost has passed. The seeds can be started up to four weeks prior to transplanting; however, the seeds should be planted in individual containers to avoid root disturbance when transplanting. When deciding where to plant your gourds, it is important to select a sunny site with well-drained soil. You might also want to consider a spot away from other crops, as the prolific vines will soon grow over any plants nearby. Gourds need some sort of structure to climb, such as a fence, arbor, or trellis.

You will know it is time to harvest your gourds when the stems turn brown and dry. This may or may not happen before the first frost of the season. It is important to note that mature gourds of the lagenaria type can survive a light frost, but any smaller fruits will be damaged. The gourds should be cut from the vine using sharp pruners, leaving a few inches of the stem attached to prevent disease from entering the fruit during its curing stage. Take care not to bruise your gourds during harvest, as any bruising or slicing of the shell could cause the fruit to rot later. After the fruits are harvested, clean them with soap and water and apply rubbing alcohol to the surface.

There are two stages to the drying process of gourds. The first stage is surface drying, or the curing stage, and it usually takes about one week. The fruits should be placed in a dark, well-ventilated area and positioned in a single layer with no gourds touching. Ventilation will be optimal if they are located on a slotted surface or screen. The internal drying stage can take up to a few months; as the skin hardens, the inside of the fruit is drying out. During this process, the gourds should remain in the dark, well-ventilated area; any heat applied to the room may accelerate the drying process and discourage disease or decay. It is important to check on your gourds regularly and remove shriveled or decayed fruits. Any mold that appears can be wiped clean with rubbing alcohol. To promote even curing, periodically turn your fruits. The gourds have finished their curing process when they become light in weight and you can hear the seeds rattling inside. Once the gourds have cured, they can be carved, painted, waxed or hollowed out for any number of uses.

Saving seeds from your gourds could prove to be an interesting experiment, as all members of the same species within the genus Cucurbita will cross-pollinate. For example, the ornamental gourds (Cucurbita pepo) will cross pollinate with spaghetti or acorn squash and other C. pepos, and might result in offspring (seeds to be planted next season) with little horticultural value. Likewise, a bottle gourd might cross with another lagenaria type such as dinosaur and result in an intermediate form that you either love or have no use for. Gourd seeds saved from a garden that included melons, squash, and pumpkins will likely produce a cornucopia of fruits different in shape, size and color. Saving your seeds can be a fun experiment, but you might end up with some surprises! Who knows, maybe you'll create a new variety that will one day grace the pages of your favorite seed catalog.

Kelle Carter
Field Coordinator

How To Build a Sturdy Gourd Trellis

Materials:

• 8 pieces of one-half-inch-thick rebar, approximately four ft. long
• 4 six-foot-tall T-posts


• 2 four-and-a-half-foot-wide, sixteen-foot-long fencing material (also called cattle panels, which can be obtained at hardware or feed stores), with at least one-forth-inch-thick tines


• Bailing wire

1. Determine where you want to place the trellis and hammer the first two T-posts into the ground, about three feet deep. You want to have them five feet apart from each other, as they will frame the entrance of the trellis.
2. Hammer the rebar about two feet into the soil; rebar provides the support for the fencing to lean on.
3. Once the supports are in the ground, place the short end of the fence (you will need more than one person) against the T-post and the rebar. While a few people hold it up, others can attach the fence to the supports using bailing wire.
4. Once one side is attached, gently bend the fence over to meet up with the supports on the other side of the bed.
5. After you have the first section of the fencing in place, hammer more rebar into the ground, about every two feet.
6. You will also want to hammer the last two T-posts in the ground (4 ½ feet after the first piece of fencing), making the end support for your trellis.
7. The second piece of fencing can be put up the same way as the first. Once both pieces of fencing are in place, wire them together with bailing wire. This will create a trellis 9 feet long and about 7 feet high.
8. Direct seed every 6–8 inches on both sides of the trellis fencing (inside and out) to create a gourd wonderland!