Newbie needs Help storing and caring for her first crop

I know there is a previous thread entitled "drying gourds", but I have a couple of questions that weren't touched on in that one. So I hope no one minds if I start a new one.

Below is a picture of my Apple Gourd harvest from this fall. It is the first time I have grown gourds, so even though I only got 10 gourds, I was very happy.

I left the gourds on the vine until the very end of Fall, and then I put them into my Garden Cart, and moved them under the porch that hangs over our walk out basement. (I put one in the screened porch, and it is still there)

I got nervous about them today, because of all the single digit and lower temps we are getting, so I brought them into the basement. Mistake????

I don't see any rot on them, but some have some black "mold?" But I thought that was what they were suppose to do ........... get moldy on the outside, which you scrape off.

Some of them still feel heavy ........ some feel light as a feather, but none of them have seeds that rattle, and you can tell that they are not completely dry.

What should I do next ........... or make sure I don't do.

Another question, if I wanted to scarifice some for seed, would the seed be "ready" now, or do I have to wait until they rattle?

Any suggestions on what I should use these for? It was fun growing them, but I really didn't plan ahead on what I wanted to do with them once I had them.... grin. I think I want to use them to decorate my gardens in some manner ... birdhouses or something different.

Another view of my gourds. Close Up

Your gourds look fine to me and the one that is light as a feather sound like it's dry, not all gourds seeds are loose unless you shake them up a bit.


If they feel heavy then they are not dry yet so just keep then in the basement until they are dry. The next thing you would do is to clean the outside but before you clean the inside please wear a mask. The dust from the gourds can cause some help problems.

The best way to clean them is to cut a small hole in the bottm or in the top, depending on what you want to do with them, and run water in the gourd to keep the dust down.
You can alway glue the bottom back in the gourd once you've cleaned the seeds out and the gourd is dry.

Once you have your seeds out be sure to dry them before you put them in seed packs.

I hope I have answered all of your questions. You can do a search on google for cleaning and decorating gourds you will find a lot of help there, or you can read some of the older post here there are a lot of good links.

Thanks so much Windsurffer.

Your welcome.
Sorry I am just now getting here but I have been having problems posting here with the new web browser I've download.
The above post was more detailed when I tried to post it the first time but for some strange reason it wouldn't let me? Good luck :}