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Huntsville Texas

Hello, I also posted in the bushel gourd messages but have not received any answer as yet and hoped I could get help here as well. We gave a friend a gourd plant last year grown from seeds from a prize winning 200 pound bushel gourd. Some of the gourds from it ended up in her huge compost heap and one seed sprouted as a volunteer. Now the vine is over two inches at the base and with secondary and tertiary vines it is over 80 feet across and setting many lovely gourds. Since we are coming into our major drought and heat here in East Texas, we were wondering about care for the vine, how often to water and fertilize, how much of both. We also use a wonderful soil product called Happy Frog that contains an excellent mix of mycorrhizal fungi and other organic additives. Would that be good to use as a mulch on the vine? Thanks for help on this.

7/21/2021 10:46:04 AM

Savage, MN

I've always left volunteers alone. My best looking tomato plants are volunteers ironically: no disease, pests, deficiencies. But with that said, gourds are heavy feeders, so mulching is probably a good idea. What has been watering it so far?

7/25/2021 10:41:57 PM

Grittyville, WA

I read your bushel gourd post. I just dont know what advice to offer. If it ain't broke dont fix it... but if it needs water then water it. Drip, flood, overhead. I'd keep any heavy irrigation a few feet away from the base though. Watering the base of a plant too much can sometimes be bad. Sometimes its ok, but in many cases it's probably not optimal.

7/26/2021 1:39:14 AM