Planting Your Gourd Plant In Your Garden

Planting your gourd in your garden is a time of great optimism. The seed you planted into a pot about a month ago is ready to become a huge plant. Its roots have been confined to a small pot and this has kept your plant small. Once its roots get a chance to spread out in your garden, you will be amazed at how big and how fast it grows. Most likely it will be the biggest plant you have ever grown. I have grown hundreds of acres of gourds and still watch in awe at the speed a healthy gourd plant grows.

We transplant our first planting of gourds to our fields around June first and our last ones before July. Some years, the early plantings do the best and some years the later plantings. If you are planting gourds that produce huge gourds (10-20” in diameter), I suggest planting the first week of June. For smaller sizes, anytime in June should be fine.

We try to plant our gourds into slightly moist soil and immediately soak them with a starter fertilizer and water. We use 20-20-20 about a tablespoon per gallon of water. Each gallon will water about 8 plants. I would use whatever water-soluble fertilizer you have experience with. Many different fertilizers will work; they will even grow without starter fertilizer if you don’t have any, providing you prepare your garden with some form of balanced fertilizer. They just may not start growing as fast.

Plant your gourds in a nice sunny spot in the garden. Find a nice shady spot for a chair, sit back and enjoy the show.