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Cucurbits - Giant gourds, Luffas and Pumpkins

Thagirion

Budgies are best
I have always loved pumpkins since I was a little kid. I became an official cucurbit fan in 2005 after seeing long handled dipper gourds growing at Epcot's The Land. When I found out these could be turned into birdhouses and other things because of the hardshells the genus Lagenaria (the hard shelled gourds) became one of my favorite plants. But unfortunately as far as pumpkins go I found out the hard way that unless you have a climate controlled greenhouse they do not grow in Florida and are near impossible to grow. This is why we have all our Halloween pumpkins imported in from other states. Imagine my surprise when I found that up north pumpkin patches are just that real patches where you go pick your pumpkins. Not tent stands like we have here. Regardless I was detrmined and I've been trying and failing since 2005 to grow them. The biggest eneimeis being powder mildew, heat, humidity and melon worms. But I finally did it. Last year I finally succeeded in growing pumpkins. I'll post some of my success pics from 2011 in this thread.

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This is a Martin House Gourd. A very large gourd for making into Purple Martin homes. Remember I'm also avian obsessed.

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I finally built an arbor for gourds along the back fence last year. These are some Opos hanging down. I love the shapes of gourds haning like this. Opo is a Chinese variety.

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If Epcot can do it then so can I. And I did. This is a giant Zucca gourd. They had bunche of these growing there on an arbor like this. I managed to grow three of these giants with this one being the biggest one. It was 30 inches.

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The start of my pumpkin patch. I tilled all that with just my foot and a shovel. The little flags are where I planted four seeds each of different types.

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Lastly, female flower of an extra long luffa. These can grow up to three feet in length. You can tell the flower is longer than normal. I'm going to stop here in case no one is interested and I don't post too many pics for nothing.

This year my focus will be on tropics but I do hope to grow some cucurbits again.
 
Do you carve gourds and do you also grow bushel gourds?
 
Other than drilling holes in them for bird houses I don't carve them. I like growing them more than using them for art. I do have seeds for bushel gourds. I have seeds for nearly all the varieties but those didn't come up for me last year. I did get a nice pointed cannon ball gourd. I may try them again this year.
 
oooh, i may have to get into gourds next year
NAOW POST YOUR OTHER PICS!!!!!!!!!!!
 
ooo I'd love to grow a gourd to make my own Yerba Mate cup. :-D
 
I should send you some seeds for my favorite gourd: the Bule. (pronounced boo-lay) it's a great walloping warty monster! Google it.
 
Excellent!

Last year, I fell in love with decorative gourds and attempted to grow them for the first time. However, the searing summer heat made things a bit difficult. I don't think I watered enough. Nevertheless, I got a small harvest.
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This year, I will be attempting to grow some again... small decorative ones, large autumn wings, and Jack-Be-Little pumpkins.
 
Gourds are a lot of fun. They are long vines that get into everything. I didn't trim the side shoots last year so not only did they go all over my arbor but they engulfed my patio as well. I'm glad you guys like the photos. Ok a few more.

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Some of the pumpkins coming up later in the season.

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Cluster of male long luffa flowers. One long female in the background.

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Female luffa bud.

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Pollinated female turning into a fruit.

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One Too Many vaiety pumpkin vine escaping through the fence.

More to come.

---------- Post added at 09:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 PM ----------

Woops you two must have been typing at the same time I was.

Whimgrinder: Thank you for the offer. I have not heard of those but they sound like the squash called Red Warty Thing. I'd be glad to trade some seeds with you. I may put up a seed trade soon on that forum.

Joossa: I saw your post from last year and LOVED your photos of your growth progress. I'm glad you have discovered the joys of cucurbits. I'm quite read up and experienced with this plant family and would be happy to help you out. Yes they do need lots of water. I think you have a wonderful little harvest though. I love those small baseball sized pumpkins. They're great for pies.
Just wanted to say too that pumpkins grow very well in California. Some prize winning Dill's Atlantic Giants have been grown there.
 
Joossa: I saw your post from last year and LOVED your photos of your growth progress. I'm glad you have discovered the joys of cucurbits. I'm quite read up and experienced with this plant family and would be happy to help you out. Yes they do need lots of water. I think you have a wonderful little harvest though. I love those small baseball sized pumpkins. They're great for pies.
Just wanted to say too that pumpkins grow very well in California. Some prize winning Dill's Atlantic Giants have been grown there.

You're photos are very inspiring, especially considering you are in Florida.

Mine grew well in spring. I know I had excellent soil and fertilized properly (high nitrogen early in the season, then higher phosphorous and potassium later on). I had no pests. So, the only thing I believe I did wrong was not water enough. I live in the desert, so I guess there is no such thing as over watering in the middle of summer when it's so hot and dry.

Like I said though, I'm giving them another shot again because there is just so much variety in the shapes and colors and textures. :-O

Best of luck to you this season, Thagirion.
 
  • #10
Thank you. I'm glad you'll be growing them again. I've got some new type of cucurbits to try this year. The most exotic ones right now I have just sprouted are Ivy Gourds Coccinia grandis which is beautiful red and green when mature as a fruit. Will also grow some Melothria scabra the mouse melon which is a tiny cucumber that looks like a watermelon. Plus a few others that haven't sprouted just yet. Looks like this year I'll be working with smaller species until I start missing the giant gourds again.
 
  • #11
Awesome! Make sure you post pictures as the season progresses! We would love to see pictures. :)
 
  • #12
I used to grow some gourds but the landscapers constantly took them out because they thought they were weeds.
 
  • #13
Oh that's annoying. I would have told them not to touch them because they were yours.
 
  • #14
Here are more cucurbit pics.

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A Zucca starting to grow on the pavers.

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A funny shaped gourd. I got the seeds out of one I bought on a trip to Georgia. They don't always turn out like the parents.

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The One Too Many pumpkin vine growing up the fence.

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Pumpkin growing on the fence. Unforunately this one never reached full size. We got our first frost in late December and it took out the last of my pumpkins.

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The Zucca harvest. I got three big Zuccas with the largest being 30 inches. The browning is normal. It's part of the curing process for them to become hard and woody.

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The gourd harvest for last year. You can see some are already browning. These are all still sitting on my shelf now and I need to was off the mold and store them and get the seeds out. I should have one last pic update after this one.
 
  • #15
I think this will be my last pic post on this thread since these were all of last year's harvest. Funny enough because of last year's success I'm rather satisfied with cucurbits and don't feel the need to plant so many this year. Part of me doesn't like that though. If I do get any neat ones I'll start a 2012 thread.

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I built this fence arbor last year and love it. I do plan to build more along other free parts of my fence. You can see my five buckets of gourds already growing up them. The plan was for them to climb up and hang down. But I got lazy part way through and didn't keep the lower side vines trimmed. Not only did they climb up the arbor but they literally swallowed that whole patio. I don't think I have pics of that but I do have video of it.

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New female Zucca flower.

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Female Horned Melon flower. I will not grow these again ever even though I saved quite a few seeds. Not only do the fruits have thorns (which I expected and what's cool about them) but the whole plant has them. They are the itchy teeny tiny glass like kind. You have to wear gloves to work in this vine. I could have put up with that except that I was majorly disapointed in the taste once I ate one. I don't remember what it was like now just that I was not pleased for all my work and had had high expectations.

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This is the point where I stopped taking progress pics. I did get some that rippened and turned orange.

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Lastly one of my pumpkin patches. The vine on the fence is bitter gourd which grows wild here. I love it and it has such pretty tiny orange fruits.


Hypocrisy as far as the eye can see by Thagirion3, on Flickr

One more actually. This is a pumpkin patch I go to every Oct to buy pumpkins. It's so much fun and very differnet from videos I've seen of patches up north.
 
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