How to Grow Healthy Gourds

Tips for Musicians Cultivating a Garden of Musical Instruments

Feb 15, 2009 Marcy Paulson

From watering, to fertilizing, to pollinating, here's everything musicians need to know to grow healthy gourds and a garden full of musical instruments.

It’s often said that gourds thrive on neglect. But for those musicians who want to get a little dirt beneath their fingernails this spring, Arthur Stephens, founder of the Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra, offers his hints for growing healthy, thick-walled gourds ideal for drums, rattles, horns, flutes, rainsticks, or guitars.

Watering and Fertilizing Gourds

Gourds need a fair amount of water. “It’s better to water your gourds early in the day so the soil dries and keeps the bacteria down,” says Arthur. “Water the gourds at least once a week, and if it’s a drought probably every other day.”

Arthur maintains that compost is the best thing for gourds. A heap of leaves or grass clippings stored over from the fall that’s occasionally moistened and stirred will provide all the nutrients necessary for thriving vines.

For gardeners who prefer to use fertilizer, Arthur says, “you can start with a neutral 10-10-10. As the gourds appear, you want to reduce the nitrogen which is the first number of those three. Nitrogen produces more leaf and vine and you want the energy to start going to the fruit. Switch to fertilizer that has a 5-10-10 formula.”

Growing Gourds with Thick Shells

For gourds that will be made into musical instruments, thick walls are essential. “There are varieties that have thicker shells,” Arthur comments. “In California, they have a longer growing season and cultivate these hyper bushel gourds that have really thick shells. You can order those seeds and they’ll continue to have thick shells if you plant them year after year. Some people also have had good luck using potash which is a chemical they say makes the shells a little thicker."

For gourds that don’t make the cut, musicians will likely develop a back-up plan such as decorative bowls, vases, or ladles. “I’ll rap on the gourd to see if it has a good thick shell,” Arthur remarks, “the thicker the better. Any gourds I grow that don’t make it as musical instruments, we’ll make hats out of them. We all have our own hats.”

Insects can cause problems for gourd growers by chewing holes right through healthy shells. Gardeners learn to live with a few casualties in their crop, but some years certain bugs run rampant. “There were a few seasons,” Arthur recalls, “where I had too many cucumber beetles, stinkbugs, or stiltbugs. Those look like a giant mosquito and they suck the juice from a young gourd that’s only around an inch long. If pests get out of hand, I usually use an organic pesticide such as insecticidal soap spray or pyrethrum which can be coupled with rotenal.”

Pollinating the Gourds

Musicians will be excited to notice flowers blooming on the vines around three to four weeks after planting. Each vine has both male and female flowers. Female flowers must receive pollen from a male flower before blossoming into a gourd. This process can be left to insects and chance, or taken over by a conscientious gardener.

Flowers bloom in the evening, and male flowers only blossom for one night. They are typically pollinated by large sphinx moths.

“One thing you can do to produce more gourds and make them healthier is pollinate the flowers,” Arthur advises. “The male flowers will be found on the main vine. The side vines that branch off are where the female flowers will be. Female flowers have what I call a gourd potential at their base. You actually will see the shape of the gourd a half-inch or an inch along under the female flower. If you look inside the female flower, you’ll see three yellow nubs that accept the pollen. The male flower is smaller on the inside and you’ll see more pollen. But the main difference is underneath the flower. If there’s just stem, then it’s a male flower. If there’s a bulge that you recognize as a tiny little gourd, then that’s the female."

“Typically,” Arthur continues, “you’ll go out and pluck a male flower from the vine. Then take a key tip, blade of grass, or whatever you want to remove pollen from the male flower, and shake it over the female flower. People who want to keep the seeds pure put a little baggie over top of the female for the next three or four days to make sure no insect gets in and cross pollinates it.”

If a gourd is cross pollinated with another variety, the seeds from that gourd will produce gourds whose shapes are anyone’s guess. But Arthur chooses not to bother with keeping his seeds pure. “I often order sees for gourds that will be true, but I actually kind of like cross pollinating and trying the seeds next year to see what shapes I get. One year I grew these things that looked kind of like prehistoric baseball bats. That’s what became the back of our lute and our gourd guitar.”

A female flower that has been pollinated will quickly blossom into a young gourd. “Depending on the amount of sunlight and water,” Arthur says, “you’ll start seeing the gourds some time in June. And they grow fairly rapidly depending on how much sunlight you’re getting.”

Next, musicians and gardeners may want to read tips for planting gourd seeds in the spring as well as harvesting and drying their gourds in the fall. They may also be interested to check out the music of the Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra and information about making the gourd musical instruments featured in Arthur Stephens’ group.

Quotes gained in conversation with Arthur Stephans of the Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra

The copyright of the article How to Grow Healthy Gourds in Musical Instruments is owned by Marcy Paulson. Permission to republish How to Grow Healthy Gourds in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.