Hi Carol
Sounds like they are not getting pollenated. Try going out late in the evening when the flowers are starting to open and pollenate them by hand. Take a male flower and carefully remove the petals and then put it in a female flower and gently rub the pollen inside the female flower. Gene

Thanks, Gene. I tried hand pollenating for a while--several weeks ago--but it didn't help. I'll give it another try, waiting till evening this time. Can't hurt, right?!

Hi Gene and Carol,
I'm having the same problem with my gourd plants. The vines are lush and vigorous with lots of small fruit setting on. After a week they start to turn brown, and soon drop off. My plants have four; almost full size, dipper gourds that set on the vines a few months ago. This evening, I plan to go out there and hand pollinate. I didn't even think that this could be my problem. Thanks a lot for bringing up the question and the answer. I hope this works.
Loyd

This is my first year growing gourds. I planted 5 and gave them 20 feet of fence. lol

Well that wasnt enough. They wandered over and started choking out my cucumbers. I had to go on a pulling and cutting spree.

I cut the main stalk when it hit 10 feet, but I only had 5 gourds on my vines. I went out 3 weeks ago and started cutting them back. I was sooooo upset to have to do this cause I had to pitch 2 nice gourds that were forming in the cuke area. This only left me 3 gourds.

Well, I think cutting them back did the trick. While I lost 2 when cutting I now have over a dozen growing nicely.

Maybe trim some of them back and see if that helps.

Good luck

Carey

Carey - Cutting the main vine promotes lateral shoots and that is where the female flowers come from. Have you tasted any cukes yet? The last time I planted cukes with my gourds (the hard shell variety) they were so bitter that I couldn't eat them. If you want to see how gourds spread and take over a whole patch, I put some pictures of my little patch which show just how fast those little buggers grow. Look at the "Gourds grow, 2009" and "Gourd Patch 2006" albums. www.picturetrail.com/genepa Gene

genepa, those are some beautiful projects. I looked at your pics. Yep they do take over fast. I cut the main vine since I read to do that. I was worried about going too short but it didnt hurt anything. It was the escape party that I wasnt expecting(and having to lose those gourds). lol But like you said when I cut those off it must have produced even more lateral shoots cause I have lots of gourds now.

Have had a couple cukes and they were good. I didnt plant them together my gourds just wanted some friends so they went right on over. lol So now I go out there at least once a day and coax the vines back where they belong:)

Thanks

Carey

Carey: I did cut back the main stalk on all my vines, but not any of the lateral ones. Maybe that is the problem. It's probably too late now as my vines are looking very ratty at this point, but I'll remember to do it next year.

Genepa: I planted my gourds with canteloupe this year and the canteloupe aren't eatable because they have such a weird flavor. After the vines had all started growing, I read somewhere that they have different water requirements. I think I've watered the flavor right out of my loupes! I'm going to go look at your gourdpatch pictures now.

Thanks to all for your responses. I'm viewing this whole gourd growing thing as a trial run this year!

i am so glad I read this forum now. i have been having the same problems with my gourds. My vines look incredible but i have 1 lousy gourd. i am going out into the dark with a flashlight now tocut them. My growing season is long, there may still be time

Last week I started hand pollinating the flowers on my gourd vines as Gene had suggested. It works!! I pollinated 15 flowers, and they all have gourds growing. They are dipper gourds, some of them are 8 inches long. I hope the season is long enough for them to mature. In Southern California, we don't have to worry about freezing.

LOYD

I had the same problem till I started to hand pollinate. After hand pollinating I have several gourds that are doing very well. You are only suspose to cut the main vine at 10'. Do not cut the lateral ones.