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Location

Message

Date Posted

NE Arkansas

I'm trying to figure out when to start my plants and how old they need to be at pollination and how many days the gourds will grow...

4/11/2017 4:38:53 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

I ususally plant them right after pumpkins, mid May in Iowa. You will get one batch of gourds about late July and another around mid august. They get the majority of growth in about 3 weeks, then slower growth for 10 days or so. I found you can speed up that late growth b foliar feeding with a high potash tomato food and a little molasses. Often the late crop is bigger than the first one. When I grew the Iowa record, it came with the first crop, then fungus took out the late crop. It was a very wet year, I lost most of my garden to flooding. They are very susceptible to a brown rust-like fungus, possibly anthracnose

4/11/2017 7:31:49 PM

NE Arkansas

Thank you

4/11/2017 9:23:16 PM

Partlow,Va

I plant about the same time as Iowegian for an October 1 weighoff. Last year May 15th.
I have had about the same luck with getting some early and then again in late August that were barely finished growing. About 40 days total growth period and then you need another 2 weeks minimum for the seeds to be good.

4/23/2017 9:34:10 AM