Gourds that have grown to maturity will easily spend the winter outside, stored in a sheltered, dry spot...it doesn't matter if they freeze. The outside dries to a hard shell and will last almost indefinitely. I have several I have left outside, in the garden, for YEARS as an experiment, to see how long they would last. I come across them as I tend the garden every spring and kick them to another part of the garden. :-)

The problem is....gourds are very much a hot weather fruit and require a long growing season to truly mature to the stage where they will successfully cure to a hard shell after being picked. I live in SW Ontario near Sarnia and have grown gourds for years. Even with our longer, milder summer, I still have to plan my gourd growing carefully, to get gourds that mature on the vine before the cold weather comes and the vine dies off.

I start gourd seeds early and grow them indoors under lights or in the greenhouse to get them to a nice size plant before the last frost date is past and it safe to plant them outdoors. I "harden them off" before planting outdoors. I take old 2 gallon plastic nursery pots and cut the bottom out, then place one around each gourd plant. It protects the young plant from the wind for a while and also creates a nice warm microclimate for the plant until it becomes more of a vine and starts to climb out of the enclosure. Then I remove them.

So...yes, you can put your gourds out into a nonheated shed for the winter. Having some mold grow on the shell is normal and can be cleaned off later. You REALLY don't want that mold in your house anyway!

I'm sorry to say the ones that have gone soft are starting to rot and won't get a hard shell....time to throw them in the compost pile. Those ones didn't get mature enough on the vine before being picked.

I hope you get some that are successful!

Thank you wyndyacre. Your the only one that has replied. I ended up throwing the soft ones in the compost and I have stored the rest in my basement. I have around 10 that so far has survied and two of them has already dried out. At the end they were very moldy but washed out very nicely. One of them has very nice markings from the mold but I'm a little worried to work with it as it sounds very thin and will be very fragile to work with. The others are not to moldy and are still green and heavy.

I think that I will start to plant my gourds this year by the end of Feb. and will try to hand polunate them myself so that I can have more this year and this time I will store them in my outdoor green house for the winter and hope for the best.

Thank you for your advise and if you have any more please share them with me.

franny.f

What kind of gourd did you grow franny.f? Are they a large "bird house" gourd? There are many different large varities like Swan Neck, Apple and Bushel Basket (my favourite!). What do you intend to make from them?

I learned, when I toured a gourd artists garden and studio years ago, that northern grown gourds are very desirable for craft work. The more challenging growing conditions cause the gourds to grow with a thicker wall than the ones grown in southern locations. This gourd grower and artist sold a lot of gourds to American artists because they greatly preferred the Canadian grown gourds!

So don't be afraid to work with your gourds when they are cured...they should be plenty strong enough. They DO feel very lightweight when they are dried out.

The gourds that I grew are the bird house gourds. I started planting them early around late april but they ended up freezing in the greenhouse but later on they started to grow again so my gourds did not get to big. I have three of them that has dried but their shells are not to thick. One of them when I was washing it got a little soft but got hard again when it dried up. Not sure if it will break when I cut of the top. My bigger ones are still not dried yet. I want to try different things with them, ( bird houses, burning desighns on them, ect. ) This my first year so I expect to rune most of them lol. This year I want to start them in late Feb. or early March and will try to pollinate myself. Still not sure how I will store them next year. This year I have around 12 of them and I stored them in my basement but would not want more of them in the house because of the mold and the only other place I can put them are in a shed but they will freeze during winter. Some say that it's o.k. for them to freeze when you get a good frost, but is it o.k. for them to be frozen all winter long? Thank you wyndyacre for your help.

Yes, you can leave them in a location that freezes. As I mentioned before, I have several that I left outdoors just kicking around the garden for years and they dried to a hard shell and stayed in perfect condition. So, leaving them in a garage or shed would be fine.

Thank you very much. This is what I wanted to know. Now I know what to do for next years crop. Again thank you wyndyacre for taking the time to answer my question. Greatly appreciated.