Gourds

I raised some gourds this year. They did better than I expected as I have never got that many gourds off the vines. In fact I got 35 of them. Four are still hanging in the redbud tree where the vine grew up in it and I didn't notice the gourds until they were almost full size. 2 of them managed to wedge theirselves in a wire fence the vine was growing on and we had to pull the fence apart to get them out. They were fun and easy to grew and very interesting watching the gourds grow. Some are fairly good sized and others are just average and a couple are even on the small size. I cut them off the vines when the vines died after the first freeze and put them on the back patio to dry only to find that they were developing spots of black mold which I had never had happen before. After reading about gourds on the web I found that this is common. I wiped them down with the 10 percent of bleach water as recommended and put them in the shed to finish drying as they are still very green.

I also found out that they can be used for a number of crafts. Bowls, vases, cute animals, lights, jack-o-lanterns, bird houses, trinket boxes, Halloween and Christmas decorations, and lots of other things, including just using them to paint designs on. When mine dry I might try some. But I found out that the mold on them and the stuff inside, and dust from cutting them open can cause flu like symptoms and allergies, itching and other problems so you have to be very careful when doing the crafts. but it does sound like an interesting project for when they dry. I differently plan to grow more of them next spring and hope to find some different kinds of seeds as there are 1000's of kinds of gourds.