More gourd questions

[Michael Lusk]

I'm back to the well for more gourd advice. I'm growing birdhouse gourds for the 1st time this year. I've got three plants about a yard apart growing along a fence. The plants seem pretty healthy and are growing well.

They've put on a lot of flowers over the last few weeks but have only produced a couple of gourds. I've had several get to about 1" then just shrivel and drop. Do any of you know why this would be happening and if there's anything I can do to help them along? Also, any thoughts on 'normal' yield for birdhouse gourds?

Thanks for the help!

Mike

 

[flowerbug]

sorry, i don't know about normal yield but flowers dropping off is usually a sign of no fertilization. do you have bumblebees or mason bees around? also early in the season it is common for a lot of the vining plants to have only one sex flowers for a while and then things start to mix more later.

the other thing is that it often helps to have more than one variety blooming at about the same time as the cross breeds often set better fruit. often when you get a package of seeds they'll mix in a few seeds of other types to do this (and they won't even tell you).

 

[majorcatfish]

i get that as well here, dont worry you will have lots of them to pick ....

if you want to, you can go out at night with a very small paint brush and pollinate them yourself to see if that helps..

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm trying to remember back for normal yield, it's been a few years. I'd think four usable gourds per plant wouldn't be that far off. I got more but not all made it to maturity.

Some of the flowers are male, some are female but they are mixed on the same plant. You can tell which by looking at the base. Females have a small gourd down there. They do require pollination, they are not self-pollinating like tomatoes or beans. Don't use any insecticide on them, they need the pollinators.

Early in the season it seems practically all the flowers are male. you can get that with squash and other members of their family. But later on the number of the female flowers increases.

It's normal for the fruit to sometimes shrivel up when really small, I think that is a pollination issue. If the blossom end is rotting, that is probably blossom end rot. That would be caused by not enough calcium getting to the fruit. That's usually caused by too much or not enough water, it very seldom has anything to do with whether or not calcium is in your soil. If you have clay you should have plenty of calcium but it is not getting to the fruit. Just shriveling up is normal.

 

[Michael Lusk]

sorry, i don't know about normal yield but flowers dropping off is usually a sign of no fertilization. do you have bumblebees or mason bees around? also early in the season it is common for a lot of the vining plants to have only one sex flowers for a while and then things start to mix more later.

the other thing is that it often helps to have more than one variety blooming at about the same time as the cross breeds often set better fruit. often when you get a package of seeds they'll mix in a few seeds of other types to do this (and they won't even tell you).

Thanks for the information. I thought it may be a pollination issue but am a little surprised as these are at our community garden and right next to a bunch of flowers. Though I do feel like the number of pollinators around this year in the neighborhood is down. No science with this, just my limited observation...last year my bee balm was absolutely covered almost daily with bees and this year not so much. Lots of folks around me are spraying for mosquitos this year...I hope the spraying isn't messing up my little urban ecosystem.

 

[Michael Lusk]

I'm trying to remember back for normal yield, it's been a few years. I'd think four usable gourds per plant wouldn't be that far off. I got more but not all made it to maturity.

Some of the flowers are male, some are female but they are mixed on the same plant. You can tell which by looking at the base. Females have a small gourd down there. They do require pollination, they are not self-pollinating like tomatoes or beans. Don't use any insecticide on them, they need the pollinators.

Early in the season it seems practically all the flowers are male. you can get that with squash and other members of their family. But later on the number of the female flowers increases.

It's normal for the fruit to sometimes shrivel up when really small, I think that is a pollination issue. If the blossom end is rotting, that is probably blossom end rot. That would be caused by not enough calcium getting to the fruit. That's usually caused by too much or not enough water, it very seldom has anything to do with whether or not calcium is in your soil. If you have clay you should have plenty of calcium but it is not getting to the fruit. Just shriveling up is normal.

Thank you for the insights, you guys are always super helpful. I'll check the flowers / baby gourds and see if I can get a better understanding of what's happening here.

 

[so lucky]

Also, with some vegetables, high night time temperature can inhibit pollination. I don't know for a fact if this is the case with gourds. But you might want to check on that. Not much you can do about it, though.

 

[flowerbug]

i'm not sure honey bees work for those plants, i'm not even sure i've ever seen honey bees on the flowers... it's the other bees that work for them, the natives and many people do not tolerate bumble bees or mason bees (because they often nest in the ground or places that people may stumble upon).

 

[catjac1975]

I'm back to the well for more gourd advice. I'm growing birdhouse gourds for the 1st time this year. I've got three plants about a yard apart growing along a fence. The plants seem pretty healthy and are growing well.

They've put on a lot of flowers over the last few weeks but have only produced a couple of gourds. I've had several get to about 1" then just shrivel and drop. Do any of you know why this would be happening and if there's anything I can do to help them along? Also, any thoughts on 'normal' yield for birdhouse gourds?

View attachment 27279

Thanks for the help!

Mike

Don't worry about any of that.Flowers that drop are likely the males. They will keep coming until frost. The real key is getting them to dry without rotting. I try to leave them on the vines for most of the winter. If you pick them and lay them on something they will rot. The vines dry and get very strong.

 

[flowerbug]

Don't worry about any of that.Flowers that drop are likely the males. They will keep coming until frost. The real key is getting them to dry without rotting. I try to leave them on the vines for most of the winter. If you pick them and lay them on something they will rot. The vines dry and get very strong.

so they would be good to hang out of the rains in the garage or something to finish drying?