Sounds like you have the "soft shell" variety of gourds. If they have yellow flowers they are for sure soft shell. They produce very colorful small gourds of all kinds of shapes. The only bad thing about them is that they only keep for a few months after harvest and then start to rot. Once in a while you can get one or two to dry but they loose all color when they do. They are great climers and if you already have a trellis I would suggest trying to grab those rascals who are headed for your yard and get them started on your trellis. They will grow over each other and get along quite well. The vines of the hard shell variety of gourds will easily grow to 30 or 40 ft. I don't believe the soft shells grow as long. If you get 3 or 4 inches of rain a month I don't believe you would need to water them. Watch the leaves, and if they start to droop all day long, then they will need watered. If your soil is decent, don't believe you'll need additional fertilizer. Sometimes that just promotes more vine growth but not necessarily more gourds. Next year try some hard shell gourds like bird house or apple gourds but be careful. They are very addictive!!! Keep the web posted on how they are doing. Good luck. Gene

Hi thanks for the reply. Yes, they do have large yellow flowers. I will update with growth.

thanks