Birth of a Birdhouse Gourd





As a fellow gourder, you probably share with me the amazing miracle of our gourds. Starting from a little seed, developing into a lovely leafy vine, and creating male and female flowers marks the beginnings of our gourds. The pollination of the female flower from insects or mankind with the pollen created in the male flowers will eventually result in our finished raw gourd. Check back often to this page as we go through the life cycle of a birdhouse gourd.

The seeds of the birdhouse gourd are kind of tooth shaped. As you can see, they may be shaded differently also.



Birdhouse Gourd Seeds

After dampening seeds for a couple of days in a baggy with a moist paper towel, they are planted in the ground about one inch deep - 2 or 3 seeds together. When the little plants appear, another gardener suggested just cutting excess plants out as opposed to pulling so that roots are not disturbed. Probably a pretty good idea! It's always exciting to see those plants come up. ******

*****a birdhouse gourd plant****birdhouse gourd vines*****

Oh boy! Now comes the fun part of waiting for the flowers to bloom....first, the multitude of male flowers so brilliantly white on all those climbing vines. Sometimes a decision is made to start cutting the vines to encourage the lateral growth of the vines that will have the female flower and thus the actual beginnings of our little gourds.



Birdhouse Gourd Male Flower

So, the boy flowers are opening up with great consistency. We start watching for female buds to develop on the lateral vines. Definately cause for another celebration!



Birdhouse Female Bud-note the bulbous area under the bud-that will be our gourd!

The female buds have appeared, now we wait for the opening of our female flowers. This happens at night. Therefore, the flowers are pollinated by moths or by mankind. One method is to take a feather, use it to remove some pollen from the male flower and deposit it inside the female flower on those bright yellow pistils. Or, you can tear off a male flower, remove its petals to expose the pollen laden stamen and use it directly on the female bloom. Hopefully, we will achieve pollination of our female flower and the birth of our gourd!



Birdhouse Gourd Female Flower

If successful pollination has occured, the next thing you will notice is a lovely little gourd starting to grow. What an accomplishment of nature. If the female was not successfully pollinated, the started gourd will turn brown and shrivel up - dying out. Don't worry though. Your plants will have many flowers and opportunities for gourds to grow. Keep watching as we post updates as the birdhouse gourd grows!



Birdhouse Baby Gourd



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