Annuals: Vines are improving, 1 by jipsi

jipsi wrote:
Syrumani:

I had about four of these bushels like yours last year, and, the way yours looks, it's already 'curing' from the inside out now... Make sure the 'shell' is HARD, with no 'cushy' or rubbery areas, and then you can try this, for peace of mind (OR a headstart on the remaining curing process!):

Take and make a small 'scratch' on the the green surface with your index or thumbnail, somewhere discreet so it won't show up later as a 'streak'. At first, it should look pale greenish color where you scratched it. Give it a couple days, then check the 'scratch': it SHOULD look nice and GOLDEN there now (the shell under the skin, exposed by the 'scratch')! This is always great news, because it means your gourd is in the 'home stretch', and relatively assured to HARDEN into crafting medium! No more worrying, crossing your fingers, etc.... :-)

I actually prefer to scrape the whole gourd at this point, giving it a bleach bath both before and after, to hasten the curing. This process makes for a more spot-design-free, golden shell (which I prefer on the LARGER bushel gourds) than the standard 'gone to mold' finishing. However, mold WILL till develope over the next few weeks, and you would have to keep mopping the shell off with a bleach solution every few days to inhibit any potential late-stage 'rot'. For me, it's worth the extra work... see my bushel gourd, 2007 crop, done this way, last winter: