Live Self Sufficient

Bottleneck gourds are great to plant in your garden. For many people, this type of gourd provides an opportunity to be crafty with your harvest. You can do all sorts of fun things with bottleneck gourds, including making decorative birdhouses out of the fruit!

In order to ensure that your gourd vine will thrive, there are a few things that you can do to create an optimal environment for it. The first thing you want to do is locate a nice sunny spot outdoors to plant your gourd seeds. It is tempting to try to plant your gourd seeds in a container, but I highly recommend that you do not do this. From personal experience, I can tell you that the vines are not nearly as sturdy.

Every package of gourds seeds I have ever purchased states right on the back that you should not start these seeds inside because they do not transplant well. I both agree and disagree. If you are very careful, you can pull it off. If you don’t have to start them inside, I certainly wouldn’t. As long as you plant them into the ground (and not a container) they seem to grow as well as the plants that were grown outdoors from seed.

Bottleneck gourds are really pretty hardy. As long as you plant them in a nice sunny location, there is little maintenance you need to do. Try to keep the soil moist, but not too moist.

I like to grow my bottleneck gourds on a trellis. If you want great looking fruit for craft projects, this is an easy way to avoid blemishes and rough spots that can occur when grown on the ground.

Do you have any tips to share?

Related posts:

1. Turn your bottleneck gourds into birdhouses
2. Turn your bottleneck gourds into birdhouses
3. Can I start vegetable and fruit vines indoors?
4. Cross pollination between pumpkins and gourds
5. Claim your pumpkins and gourds while still on the vine