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Montoursville, PA

Needless, to say, something exciting is happening here! I have a crazy long gourd that has done well, to this date.

For seven, of the last ten days, it has grown ten inches a day average. The seed pod has formed. The expansion that I am calling the seed pod area is about eighteen to twenty four inches of the total fruit. Yesterday it slowed down to five inches and today it has shown only an inch of growth.

I am not giving total inches because I have a guessing game going, on another thread. I will simply say this is an exciting happening, for me. It is growing from an 80" seed grown, by Dan Carlson in 1999.

The information I seek is your knowlege concerning the last ten days or so of growth. Is this about the end, of the growth or may it grow even more?

9/4/2005 9:49:21 AM

Ontario, Canada.

Holly crap Doc. I have one that was growing 5 or 6" a day and now has slowed down to about 2". I thought that was good. 10" a day is pretty darn good.

The trouble with a growth curve is finding out exactly what day they started. My plants are so high up that they need to hange down several inches before I can even see them.

9/4/2005 10:02:23 AM

Montoursville, PA

I feed them imported mother's milk, from African Elephants. I feel it was the trunk genes that made the difference. :)))

9/4/2005 10:59:41 AM

Covington, WA

Doc I'd start digging a hole underneath it. You don't want to get a curve in the growth, you want it to be nice and straight. You'll know your at the end when it reaches the bottom of the hole. Just dig out a little more dirt then to avoid that growth curve. Of course you need to keep in mind this advice is from someone who has never gotten one to germinate. Good luck it sounds like it's doing great.

9/4/2005 11:42:54 AM

Clinton, Iowa

DR.

From my limited experiece I could figure on 35 to 40 days of gourd growth....that is what I have seen....Now as far as growth and how it tapers..Marc P. has been doing some data recording there...he might be able to shoot you some numbers..I know th eones I grew in the past never went from 10 to 5 to 2 to nothing..they were always a longer drawn out ordeal....Just what I can remember....Sounds like a good one!! WOO HOO!!!

9/4/2005 6:44:36 PM

Montoursville, PA

Tiller........dig a pit. Good heavens no. Not, on this rock pile. It would be easier, to jack up, the apple tree.

9/4/2005 8:08:42 PM

Hamburg, NY

Your watering program will play a big roll here. I always used a twice a day program and that kept things moving along. I did have data in one WPC Newsletter that gave the growth chart over the period. Not saying I'll have time to re-type it but I'll see.

Got a mess of tarp order completed today for Tuesday's mail. All current orders will be out by then. Have tarps and strap lifters ready to go - www.atlanticgiant.com

/Ray (Lgourd)

9/4/2005 9:34:21 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

I'm guessing that night temperatures may have an effect on long gourd growth, even though this is our first year growing them. We would make measurements in the morning and again in the afternoon and show no growth at all. When we measured the next morning they would show significant growth. So it seems they do all their growing in the dark, just like the blooming. Now that we are having cooler nights they aren't growing as fast. We also noticed that once the growth slowed to an inch per day, they had only a couple of days growth left in them. Maybe the shorter days means that they store up less energy from the sun for growth. Our plants seemed to have 4 "flushes" of gourd setting. The first one made 56" but was very fat. The next flush averaged around 65". The third flush reached a maximum of 74". This was during the hottest part of the summer with very warm nights. The 4th flush is just going now, with night temps in the 50's. Hope this helps.

9/5/2005 9:34:15 AM

Long Island,New York

Did each successive "flush" have a bigger plant behind it?

9/5/2005 10:47:57 AM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

No. They are all on the same plants. We have been able to keep all of the gourds on the vine so far. It seems that every few weeks they send up a new batch of female flowers on secondaries vines and male flowers on the mains. Our vines are now around 25' or longer. Our trellis is made of some light wire fencing set vertically about 4' high on steel fence posts. It then runs horizontally over a 8' deep slope towards our deck railing, with several supports. The vines have now run all across our deck rail and are on the garage roof. There is a photo in my grower diary

9/5/2005 12:21:48 PM

Long Island,New York

What I mean is at the time of the growth of fruit number one the plant was 100 sq ft...then with the second better growing fruit was the plant bigger too? And the third one still bigger plant? etc....?

9/5/2005 2:06:49 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

1st gourd was at a vine length of around 5 feet. I had to grow it on a slanted board to keep it from curling up. It seemed like they set a new flush of fruit about every 5' to 6' of length. All the new fruits were on the new growth, and none on the old growth. As they grew they had more leaf area to gather sunlight, but they were on the same root system. There were no stems trailing on the ground to add more roots. I hope this helps.

9/5/2005 5:53:29 PM

Riverton, WY

Doc, I can't help you with the growth curve, but last year I had one headed for a PB and it stopped growing suddenly. Further inspection revealed the weight of the gourd put a kink in its lifeline & pinched off the flow of gourd juices. The area of the kink had turned brown & that was the end of that. This year I'm using a thin piece of cloth to help support the weight of the gourd & keep the stress off of the vines.

9/5/2005 11:59:41 PM

Montoursville, PA

Thank you all for your input. Cool weather set into the Northeast. Fifty degree nights and shorter days are most likely why my gourd has all but shut down. It has continued to grow but very respectfull may be the only result of this great performer.

I did everything but sleep with it the last three or four days. The life lines are open. The feeding pit is humpped up a tiny bit....well maybe a bit more too. :)))

If it does not wake up and move a bit more than presently the grow is about completed, for this great performance. It will still be a great competitor if not a record fruit. Surely it hyped me up, for the past three weeks. Great fun growing these critters. I haven't has so much fun since grandma got her (you know what) in the clothes wringer.

9/6/2005 10:39:30 AM