How to Grow a Birdhouse Gourd

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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If you can grow the notoriously prolific zucchini, you can grow its unusual cousin, the birdhouse gourd. By growing birdhouse gourds, you can create a low-cost source of material to create birdhouses that attract several wild species. If you live in an urban area with few bird species, you can use your birdhouse gourd to create an ornamental birdhouse to embellish your flower arrangements.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Birdhouse gourd seeds
Compost
Peat moss
Trellis
Paintbrush

Step1

Choose fresh seeds, packaged for the year you're growing the gourds (see Resources below). Discard any birdhouse gourd seeds that are misshapen. Ensure a harvest of large birdhouse gourds by planting the largest seeds from the package.

Step2

Prepare your garden bed for gourd growing. Gourds grow well in soil amended with ample amounts of humus or compost, as they are heavy feeders. If you soil is hardpan or full of clay, consider growing gourds in a raised bed.

Step3

Check the pH of your soil. Gourds prefer a slightly acidic soil, with a pH ranging from 5.8 to 6.2. A soil pH of 7 is neutral. If your soil is alkaline, add 5 lbs. of peat moss per 100 square feet of garden space.

Step4

Control weeds and pests on your birdhouse gourd plants. Gourds don't like to compete for nutrients or water, so pull weeds daily. Handpick vine borers and cucumber beetles, as pesticides kill the bees that pollinate your gourd flowers.

Step5

Provide birdhouse gourd plants with a trellis to grow on. Trellises protect the gourds from ground-dwelling pests, and allow the gourds to develop an even shape, rather than a flat spot where the fruit rests on the ground.

Step6

Increase your harvest by hand-pollinating blossoms. Gather pollen from a small male flower with a paintbrush, and transfer to a female flower, marked by a swelling beneath the petals.

Step7

Harvest birdhouse gourds about 4 months after planting. You can wait until forecasters predict the first frost to ensure that the gourds are ripe, but bring them in before frost damage occurs.