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Location

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Date Posted

Princeville, IL

I have a bunch of bushel gourds I would like to try to dry. I have tried keeping them inside, outside and in the field and just can't get the big ones to dry. Any suggestions?

10/17/2018 9:25:46 PM

Bethlehem CT

This is just a theory I have and I am looking to prove it. The only successfully dried bushel gourds I have had were ones that got cracks in them and the fluids were able to drain out of them. Perhaps we need to be making a drain hole on the bottom side so the liquid can drain out as the insides ferment.

10/18/2018 7:35:40 AM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

I have had no luck either...I think the mass is just to great to dry properly...

10/18/2018 1:18:53 PM

Colorado

Theyre tough to dry cause of that thick whale blubber inside.Id think the 300 lbers would be real tough to dry.Pick em and put em outside on a pallet and youll get maybe 50% failure. Ive gotten 140lbers to dry out here in Colorado but were sunny and low humidity. You don't want cracks in them that lets mold spores inside too quick.

10/18/2018 1:43:30 PM

Colorado

The giant pear gourds dry easier as theyre a little less dense.

10/18/2018 1:44:57 PM

Bethlehem CT

Cojoe I would consider 50% a real success for me. Perhaps climate does play a big factor in successfully drying them. However I still am not sure....A few years back I brought a couple BG's into a heated greenhouse and that didn't work out too well either. What a mess!

10/18/2018 6:18:33 PM

NE Arkansas

I've dried a 138 lber. I just let it sit out of the weather but it takes 6 months

10/22/2018 3:05:18 PM

Alex, IN

What about a device to dry them down? Similar to how we dry down seed corn after we pick it at 30 percent moisture.

10/22/2018 4:21:09 PM

Colorado

I cut a port hole in my 170lber scraped all the soft stuff out.It shrunk as the shell dried -looked like a large green prune

10/22/2018 5:46:17 PM

Bethlehem CT

I think climate may play a part like cojoe suggested earlier. Dan Westfall told me he was able to dry them in an unheated building.

10/23/2018 7:12:41 AM

Williamsburg,KY

Maturity is the key to drying a large gourd. If the gourd is not mature it will wrinkle, crack. The seeds should be good but the shell needs time. Time on the vine. There is lots if moisture in that huge gourd and it has to seep out thru the skin.

10/30/2018 9:01:16 AM

Bethlehem CT

Maybe that is part of the issue is that we are harvesting them while they are very young. We do this in order to achieve the maximum weight at a weigh off.

10/30/2018 1:14:50 PM

Bethlehem CT

Pardon my careless grammar.

10/30/2018 1:15:55 PM

Lewistown,IL

I am thinking of putting them in a kiln to dry slowly. Youtube has tons of videos on how to build them. One guy uses heat lamps only for the heat source a fan for circulation and a de-humidifier to remove moisture. Worth a try.

11/10/2018 8:11:49 PM