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Prepare as many mounds as you like, with five to eight feet between the mounds. The bottle gourd has an honored place in history as one of our earliest domesticated crops. Bottle gourds may have an elongated or rounded shape. Some may twist like a gooseneck and others may sport a double bulge like a weightlifter’s dumbbell.
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How to Store Fruits and Vegetables from the Garden
Keep seed watered until the plant is established. They take several months to make fully mature gourds. We planted two plants and ended up with about 30 or so, but according to my research, that is not the traditional yield. This bottle gourd birdhouse comes with paint and stickers to decorate it.
How to Grow Birdhouse Gourds & Make Birdhouses
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Birds do not need a perch to enter the nest, they have such precise flying skills that they can land on the edge of the entrance opening. If you live near the beach, say in Hermosa Beach or Santa Monica, it's unlikely that you'll have much luck with a bird house. The reason is that there likely aren't many cavity nesting birds residing in these seaside areas that are also largely suburban. This isn't to say that you'll come up empty if you put one up. Useful gloves for cleaning gourds and a very nice wood putty, great for unique gourd craft projects.
Birdhouse Gourd - Green - Handmade
Sand the gourd smooth and paint with an oil-based primer. Paint the gourd house with white exterior enamel paint with a nylon brush. (Do not use water-based latex paint because it will peel.) Apply two coats.
They can add a pop of color to your garden or porch. You use modeling clay for beaks and dowel rods for legs. Paint a wooden base blue and add water lilies to take the decoration a notch higher. Besides making a birdhouse, you can use it as a dipper or spoon. You can also use it to create drinking vessels and other decorative items. It grows well on a trellis and produces a long, beautiful handle.
Finishing the Gourd with Dye or Paint
The male flowers shed their pollen and fall off, while the females are fertilized and fruit. It’s not uncommon for most of the early season flowers to be male. However, some hybrid varieties produce female flowers first. Until there are both male and female blossoms at the same time, there can’t be pollination followed by fruiting. Established plants should do fine with an inch of water per week in the absence of rain. During a very dry spell, you may need to be a bit more generous.
These plants do not overwinter since cold temperatures kill the vines. If frost threatens before the fruits have fully matured, cover the plants lightly to shield them from the frost. This step is optional, but it adds a nice touch to the birdhouse. Drill a hole beneath the entrance using the ⅜ inch drill bit. Angle the hole a little upwards to compensate for the curve of the vegetable.
Hen Painted Gourd Birdhouse
I’ve had beautiful squash grow on plants whose leaves were thoroughly damaged by powdery mildew, for example. At about this time, you may find that your gourds are getting bulky. While the stems are quite sturdy, some folks like to provide added support with a soft sling. The same goes for transplants – plant two in each mound, to give the vines plenty of room to spread as they grow. When you have seedlings with two sets of true leaves, thin the number of plants per mound to two. If you wind up with two extremely vigorous vines, you can always thin them to one later, if you like.
How long does it take to grow a birdhouse gourd
Add more phosphorus to the fertilizer mix to encourage more female flowers to fruit. Luffa flowers are yellow, appearing very similar to squash flowers. Male flowers usually cluster, while female flowers are singular and look like small fruiting bodies before blooming.
Sow in late spring when the soil temperature is at least 70℉ and frost danger has passed. Hang the gourd in a sunny spot or place it on newspaper in a warm dry spot (such as an attic or basement) for 3 to 6 months. If the gourd is lying on a flat surface, be sure to frequently turn it. The gourd will begin to mold as it dries—don’t throw it out!
You get gourds for building birdhouses in different sizes, shapes, and colors. It is surprisingly easy to grow gourds and transform them into birdhouses. I kept one for myself and gave others away as gifts. Like most squash, gourds, and other members of the Cucurbitaceae family, birdhouse gourds grow best in full sun and rich, well-drained soil chock full of compost. I drill two holes near the top with the twist bit to add a wire hanger and three or more holes on the bottom for drainage. I then drill a larger hole with the hole saw on one side of my gourd for the birds to enter.
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