My gourd patch is about 50' wide and 300' long. I have 30 “hills” in the patch. I use the same hills over and over each year, and since gourds are fertilizer hogs, it is very important to add several sources of fertilizer each year. The first year is by far the hardest amount of work because I start my hills by digging a hole that is 3' in diameter and 1' deep. Then, I add 2 bags of composted cow manure to the dirt I just dug from the hole, and mix well, using a shovel. Also, while mixing I add 2 cups of 8-8-8 fertilizer and 2 cups of lime. The lime is to prevent blossom end rot. Blossom end rot is the flower falling off of the fruit before it can “set”. While this is not necessary, it does provide the opportunity for the fruit to “set” quicker. Anyway, once I have mixed the composted cow manure, dirt, fertilizer, and lime, I put this mixture back into the hole I dug. Since I added the cow manure, I now have mixture that is more than the amount of dirt I dug out, so it forms a hill.

In the center of the hill, I dig a hole into which I place a metal 1 lb coffee can or large dog food can, which has both ends cut out. You want the top of the can level with or just above, the top of the soil. I, then, pull the dirt back around the can and fill the can up with pea gravel. This can serves 2 purposes. One is as the can rusts and breaks down; it adds trace minerals to the soil mixture that can be utilized by the plants. It also, provides a place for me to put my drip irrigation nozzles so that the water has a direct route to the roots of the plants, and does not runoff to be wasted. In following seasons, the work is not as hard, since the original hole is already dug. All I do is dig out the loose soil, add the 2 bags of composted cow manure, fertilizer, and lime. I do this about 2-3 weeks before I am ready to plant so that the fertilizer and lime have time to start breaking down.

I start my seeds inside using 3” peat pots. I have built a little heated rooting box from wood, a piece of clear acrylic plastic, and an old waterbed heater. This provides a moist environment that has the temperature controlled to 85-90 degrees. I put 3 seeds per pot. I plant the seeds one week before I intend on setting them out in the patch. In my area, I want my plants in the ground on April 1. This is risky because there is still a frost potential, but I just pay attention to the weather and cover the plants if I need to. If you start the plants inside, it is important not to start them to early. You must get them into the ground before the root has an opportunity to break through the peat pot because gourd plants do not transplant well. The roots damage very easily. Ideally, the pots need to be put into the ground as soon as one seed starts to crack the soil. By this time, the root is already about 2” long. Also, the young plants will get too tall if not placed out in the sun. The plants will lay over and usually not recover. For the first week or two after transplanting, the plants will appear dormant, alive but just not doing anything. This is OK so don't worry about it.

Once they start running, they will grow over 1' a day. I put 3 peat pots per hill, so that gives me a total of 9 potential plants per hill. I, also, crank up my drip irrigation system and set it so that it applies about 3 gallons of water, to each hill, every other day. This is done with a timer. The drip nozzles have the capability of delivering 10 gallons per hour. I set the timer on the system to 15-20 minutes.

Then, other than keeping out a “frost” watch, I don't do anything else except apply Sevin dust, if needed, to control insects. I only use Sevin when the plants are young. Once they are strong and running, I don't do any kind of insect control. Any imperfections in a dried gourd can easily be covered with Elmer's Wood filler and sanded, or just ignored.

Once the plants start running, I thin the plants out to 1 plant per peat pot, so that makes 3 plants per hill. Don't thin until the plants start running. The first plant to sprout is not always the best plant or the strongest plant; so let them start running to see which is the strongest. Also, at the point, I increase the water supply to 5 gallons per day and use a Miracle Gro hose feeder, inserted in the hose line, to feed Miracle Gro fertilizer once a week until the last week of June. After the last week of June, I do not fertilize anymore. Once significant growth has occurred, I increase the water supply to 10 gallons per day. All irrigating takes place starting at 7:00 AM.

Once the main runner, the male part of the plant, reaches a length of 10'-12', I cut off the terminal end. Anytime, you prune the terminal end of a plant, you force more growth to the lateral branches. I keep a close eye on the lateral branches, or female parts of the plant for the set of fruit. Once a fruit has set on a lateral branch, I prune that branch off just beyond the fruit. This forces most of the nutrients going into that branch, to go the fruit. I do not do any hand pollinating. Once each plant has 5-6 gourds that have set, and started growing, I keep all other fruits pruned off. After the 5-6 gourds are of a decent size, I just let the plants go wild and do no pruning. This will insure of at least 5-6 huge thick-shelled gourds per plant, plus many others that are very much usable. Plus, by this time, the plants have become intertwined, I would do more damage trying to prune them that by just leaving them alone. I do walk the patch daily looking for fruits, and set them upright once I find them. This produces nicely shaped gourds with flat bottoms.

This year, I just did not have time to harvest the gourds like I usually do. I usually harvest the gourds shortly after their stems turn brown, but after this year, I will stop doing that. Because I left the gourds in the patch until December this year, they had dried and cured faster, so that will be my method from now