We shared two blog posts about how to cultivate seedlings, and trimming and fertilization before. Coming to our third blog of this series, let's look at how to harvest gourds.
When to Harvest Gourds
You can normally find information about day of maturity from sow, and sometimes the size or weight of the fruit, on the package of the seeds you purchased. Just like our pages for gourds or solanceae. But it is worth noting that, there are many external factors that may affect this date. For example
- Sunlight is the key factor to blooming of gourd flowers
- Continuous rain, lack of pollinators
- Gourds mature before they grow to the right size due to the above factors or else. Smaller fruit requires shorter maturing time
In practice, you may need to count the days after pollination, or check the fruits with some experience as your final goal. Here are some of our experience that you may find useful!
Approx. 35 days after pollination for early varieties. Lightly slap on your melon. If you feel that there are a lot of water inside the fruit, the vacuolum are too small. If you feel that it is firm, it is highly possible that carbohydrate and organic matter are formed. Now is your harvesting time!
Approx. 50-60 days after pollination. White dust will appear, skin turns from green to orange-yellow, stem turns woody. Shelf life can last more than 6 months if the fruit is not cut open
Approx. 38 days after pollination. Like pumpkin, wax gourd also has white dust on its surface. Clover Seed's wax gourd has early maturity, which makes them suitable for sowing twice a year. And just like pumpkin, they have extensive shelf life
Approx. 10-14 days. Harvest when their hair is thorny
Approx. 7-14 days after pollination. When pattern and colour turn light. Note that they will continue to mature even on shelf
Approx. 7 days after pollincation. Unlike Bitter Gourd, cucumber should be harvested when their colour turn darker
Approx. 7-14 days. When colour turn darker, touch should be bouncy
Can I save seed from my gourds?
All the gourds seeds on our online store are Filial 1 Hybrid (F1). It is a misunderstanding that F1 seeds cannot be saved. In fact, many angiospermae today are developed in hybrid processes. In agriculture, F1 is produced through year-long cyclical processes of selection, cultivation, selection, production, in order to maintain benefits from their parental line, so that crops can be uniform. This can save the preparation time for farmers in terms of time and space.
Just like how we differ from our parents, the next generation of F1 (F2, F3...) can be very different from F1. Characteristics from recessive gene may emerge, and this can be a bother for farmers who are aiming for harvest.
So, if harvesting what you've planned is the ultimate goal, we suggest you to buy seeds.
Of course, heirloom seeds are very important. Heirloom seeds are open pollinated, produced without opting for uniformity. They change with the environment, and they are genetically diversified. They are potential parental line for F1 production too. If there is no parental material, there might as well be no F1 seed at all.
Stay with us in our next blog this Summer - we will share about gourds' seed saving on our SEED BLOG again!
More from Growing Gourds Series:
Growing Gourds Series - 1 : Five Elements for Growing Healthy Seedlings (Reading Time: 4 Minutes)
Growing Gourds Series - 2 : Trimming and Fertilization of Gourds（Reading Time: 2 minutes）
Growing Gourds Series - 4 : Gourd Seed Saving（Reading Time: 4 Minutes）