Gourds

[AlittleSalt]

We saw some gourds tonight that had been painted and had holes cut in them for a birdhouse. They were being used as inside decorations only. As I looked at them, I thought about how that would be a fun growing and then crafting thing for our grandchildren. At the same time, I thought about what my father said about gourds as I was growing up. I will leave out some of the words he used, but I got the point. He told me that gourds are extremely invasive. I believed him even though I've never seen gourds taking over a plot of land.

I looked up gourds online a few years ago, and it said that people eat them. Okay, I haven't seen gourds in a recipe. Some are used to shower with? Then I looked them up tonight https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/gourds I'm sorry, but that looks like a vegetable form of a male ...thing. That isn't my image of a gourd.

A possible birdhouse https://www.google.com/search?q=gourd+s ... 08&bih=603 is what I've always seen and thought of as a gourd. Maybe I have always been wrong?

[bjbebs]

I use them for birds, mainly martins. Set around a pond and they will be used. We're sitting at 10 below zero today but the migration has started. Two more months and the same nesting pairs will show up, I hope.

[Nan6b]

I have grown birdhouse gourds and made them into bird houses.
The green color turns to a weird mottled black & brown.
The walls are thin, and it lasts only about a year.
If one painted and shellacked it, it might last longer.
I put a couple small holes in the bottom for drainage in case water got in. Also, a pair of holes near the top on the neck to thread a rope through to fasten the gourd to a tree.
The entry hole should be far enough up from the bottom so that little immature birds don't fall out. This makes some squatty gourds not usable. The diameter of the entrance hole should be just big enough for the birds you want to attract. If you make the hole too big, larger birds might come in and kick out your desired little birds, or lay eggs in the nest: cuckoos and cowbirds lay eggs in other birds' nests, so your little bird will end up raising someone else's offspring instead of their own.
Here are a couple diameters for particular birds.
bird...............diameter..........height to hang
Bluebird........ 1.5” (3.8 cm) ... 4-6' (1-2m)
Chickadee ..... 1.25” (3.2cm) .. 5-15' (2-5m)
Flicker ......... 2.5” (6.35cm) .. 6-10' (2-3m)
House Finch ... 2” (5.1cm) ...... 5-10' (2-3m)

[Nan6b]

I have a question: are gourd plants and gourds deer resistant? It seems to me I didn't have problems with them with the birdhouse gourds. I'm growing speckled swan gourds this year if I can grow them outside the deer fence. Thoughts?

[bjbebs]

Never had deer problems with squash, gourds, cucs or anything similar. Too many other preferred foods in the garden. They want green, from lettuce to peppers. Fruits produced by garden plants are usually not their top choice.
Groundhogs are a different matter. Never known a mature hog that didn't love a butternut squash.

[Glitch]

I'm sorry, but that looks like a vegetable form of a male ...thing. That isn't my image of a gourd.

I've always thought the same thing! That gourd in the catalog always makes me laugh.

I'm planning on trying to grow some gourds on my fence this year. Just for fun. Thanks [mention]Nan6b[/mention] for the sizes for birdhouses.

[Amateurinawe]

How much for the gourd ?

[Pokemato]

I don't know if this will be helpful to the original poster or not, but I also thought growing gourds and helping my daughter make them into birdhouses would be a great project given her love of growing things, animals, and crafting. I did buy some seed and I have some winter sown right now. However, I learned watching a video of a gourd artist, that the gourds, once cured and dried, are considered toxic due to the molds that grow on them. You aren't supposed to store them to cure/dry in a place people live in or frequent and, if you are going to drill them, the warnings I read were pretty scary, indicating that you had to do it outside, with a respirator mask, with head covered and rush inside to wash everything carefully. It unnerved me a bit. I'm not saying you have to do this, only that once I had seen the video indicating they were toxic and that this gourd artist had a special ventilation and air filtration system in her shop AND wore a mask, I was like no way, and went out to do more research and to my shock found that the warnings are not inconsistent, though maybe overly cautious. I decided if it germinated, I'd probably try growing at least one plant and go from there

This link might be helpful: http://www.amishgourds.com/store/page/448772/

[AlittleSalt]

I had no idea about the warnings. We bought two packs of seeds a couple of weeks ago. I need to do more research.