seeds?

Carol brought me one of those too cool 'alligator' gourds. She bought it green from the roadside stand. I'm wondering if and when the seeds will be ready. Apparently the lady always cuts them green, but I don't think it's dry, no rattling of seeds inside.

Hopefully Windsurffer will come along and help ya. She seems to know a whole lot more about Gourds than most everyone here. Between her and Dave that is.
Is the stem green or brown? I do know that the stem is suppose to be brown when you pull them off the vines. Wondering too if you should scrap it like Wind does? She seems to think that will help in the drying of gourds. I assume that being a Alligator gourd it is bumpy huh?? Bet that would be hard to scrap off. What are you going to do with it?? any ideas yet? I don't think I have seen that kind before.
Come on Wind!! Help her out here!!

This message was edited Wednesday, Oct 30th 8:24 AM

Tig, I had to harvest my gourds before the stems were green...due to something chomping on them...but the two I scraped I scraped too early and they have gotten mis-shaped...I'll still use them as Kit said to design according to the shape...makes sense!! Just let it dry...if it is still heavy it isn't dry...and it will change into a buff color when it dries. Sometimes the seed NEVER rattle...there are "pods" inside the gourds and sometimes the pod doesn't break for the seeds to rattle around...I've had to break the pods before. Hope this helps until Kit gets here. Jo

okay, the stem is brown and it's pretty light. so maybe it is green when dry??

Tig, if you find out please let me know. I have someone I promised to send seeds to. Now I wish I had gotten more of these gourds and would have thought to ask the lady who grew them for more info! Ruth was so sweet and gave me a book on gourds, but I haven't had time to read it yet - maybe it will have some info in it for us. She also gave me a printed page and it appears this gourd has more than one name.

Mollybee, you are so right - it would definitely be a chore to scrape it unless you are a very, very patient person and enjoy tedious work. This lady had made birdhouses out of them, so there must be a trick for doing it.

whew! don't know how to scrape this one, it's full of crevices that would be destroyed!!!

Tig, Would you mind checking out the chart on this page and seeing if what you have is the same as no.16 ? http://www.gourdsbyjeanie.com/gourd_suppliers.htm

yes, that's it best I can tell

Good, I thought so, I have a few of these that are dried and if you want some seeds, I'll be happy to send you some.

if it's green with a brown stem, is it dried? cause I should have seeds, just am not really ready to cut it, hoping to wait until winter.

Well, Mine is tan and totally dried with the seeds rattling. I have never known of a gourd being dried if it was still green, But, I'm no expert on this either, So don't go by what I say, It's just the way of always none them to be 'tan when dry'

:) I would love a few seeds.

Sure Thing, Just E-Mail your addy and I'll send some along, If not today, I'll get it out tomorrow.

tig, May I please have a few seeds?

Annie

Annie, I'm going to let it dry a while, but if they are viable, you sure can.

We had some nice ones a year ago. They were called Maranka in Stokes Seed catalog. Also comman name of Caveman's Club.
Bernie

Tig the seeds will be ready when the gourd is dry. You can tell they are dry by the weight of the gourd, they are lighter in weight when completely dry and some of them you can shake and hear the seeds rattling around.Hope this helps you.