Detailed Guide to Indoor Gourd Cultivation in Winter

SummarySoil preparation and fertilizing: Fertilize 10 days before planting the gourds, and during this period plow the soil deeply. Sowing: You may coat the seeds with captan to disinfect them before sowing. Building the gourd trellis: Round bottle gourds, daruma gourds, small gourds, and the like can grow naturally following the terrain, but if you want to cultivate gourds with excellent shape, you need to build a trellis. Pinching tips and vines: Pinch the tips and vines when the gourd's branches and vines reach the top of the trellis.

1. Soil preparation and fertilizing

1. To encourage the soil to fully absorb nutrients, fertilize 10 days before planting the gourds; during this period plow the soil deeply and apply plenty of fertilizer, so the gourd roots can reach deeper and grow vigorously. This is especially important for varieties such as large bottle gourds and long bottle gourds, where deep plowing and compost application matter even more. If the groundwater rises during the rainy season, it can easily cause root rot instead, so during this period control the rise of the groundwater and plow deeply only to the extent that the roots do not rot.

2. Gourds are grown in greenhouses, and the greenhouse cannot be moved, because once planted they stay for several years, so to prevent continuous cropping obstacles you need to apply high-quality fertilizer and, mainly with organic matter, cultivate microorganisms in the soil. So-called organic fertilizers are nitrogen fertilizers, including seed cakes, fish scraps, chicken manure, and the like; phosphate fertilizer means bones or rice bran; potassium fertilizer is plant ash or rice straw ash, and the like; or combine these in reasonable proportions as fertilizer, or use organic compound fertilizer.

3. Gourds do not adapt to acidic soil, so lime must be added to the base fertilizer. If lime is insufficient, the vines will turn brown and the young fruit will become distorted. For lime, use magnesium lime or slaked lime at 20kg per 1 sq m; the amount of base fertilizer to apply depends on the conditions of the plot, but usually 1kg each of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium per 1 sq m is suitable.

4. During this period, note that if too much base fertilizer is applied the vines will not grow, it will be hard to produce female flowers, and diseases will occur easily. The order of preparing the field is compost and lime, and soil mixed together and spread 30 cm thick, then apply the other fertilizers, break up the soil finely and mix it; for plots with poor drainage, you can dig a ditch 10 cm high.

2. Sowing

1. Gourd seeds carry pathogens such as anthracnose, so you may coat the seeds with captan to disinfect them before sowing; during this period, use pliers to make a crack, or use nail clippers to cut off part of the seed coat. If the seed is thin you can use nail clippers, but you must not damage the embryo inside.

2. To ensure sprouts emerge, during this period you can plant seeds that have already sprouted. To make gourd seeds sprout, wrap the seeds in a cloth such as a wet towel and put them in a sealed container, place it in a spot at 25-30°C, and an electric blanket can also be used; wait 3-4 days and they will sprout. When the sprout is 0.5-1 cm long, plant it in a seedling pot, using seedling culture soil as the soil.

3. Place the seeds flat, cover with 1 cm of soil, then water, and cover with newspaper until they sprout, to avoid water evaporating; just place them in a semi-shaded spot outside where rain cannot reach them.

3. Building the gourd trellis

1. Round bottle gourds, daruma gourds, small gourds, and the like can grow naturally following the terrain, but if you want to cultivate gourds with excellent shape, you need to build a trellis. The size of the trellis depends on the area of the yard and the number of plants grown; growing 1 small bottle gourd plant requires 3 sq m, and growing 1 large bottle gourd plant requires 5 sq m.

2. The trellis height is about 2 m, and the top is made by tying bamboo poles into a grid pattern with spacing of about 30 cm, tied firmly with rattan rope, to withstand strong winds and the pressure of the gourds' own weight.

3. During this period, building the trellis with the piping used to make small greenhouses is more convenient; just cover the top with netting. Once a gourd trellis is built it is relatively hard to move, so it is common to plant in the same spot every year. To avoid the drawbacks of continuous cropping, during this period you can make a movable trellis and plant in different spots; for small-scale growing, after 1-2 years you need to change the planting spot once.

4. Pinching tips and vines

When the gourd's branches and vines reach the top of the trellis, because of the vines' growth, pinching tips and vines becomes important daily work, and this stage is a period when pests and diseases occur frequently; prevention is more important than treatment, so you can spray pesticide once a week. In the middle and late stages of gourd growth, pollination, picking fruit, clearing dead leaves, and supporting large bottle gourds are the main work.

5. Harvest after the leaves and vines wither

1. The main work in autumn is harvesting, harvesting ripe gourds; however, since the fruit-setting time is not recorded, it is easy to pick unripe gourds as well.

2. If you wait until the leaves and vines have all withered before harvesting, the above situation will be avoided. During this period, you can scrape the skin off the harvested gourds and dry them in the sun; winter is the season for processing gourds, and generally you can also process them into fine gourd handicrafts according to your own creativity.