FREE: GOURD SEEDS!!

The listing, GOURD SEEDS!! has ended.

THIS AUCTION IS FOR 5 SEEDS ~~
SEEDS AND SPROUTS ARE FROM MY HARVEST LAST YEAR, AND GOURDS ARE ACTUAL FROM LAST YEAR
LISTIA RULES APPLY~~ VERIFIED ADDRESS PLEASE

Each gourd vine bears male and female flowers. The male flowers usually appear first. It is very easy to tell male from female flowers as the female flower will have the small gourd shape below the bloom, while the male flower ( photo at left is male flower ) grows on a stem without the ball shape below the flower.

The first vine that grows will generally have mostly male flowers, but you can make it produce more female flowers ( thus making more gourds ) by cutting the ends of the vine back.

Left on their own, gourds depend on insects such as bees and beetles for pollination. One problem with this is that gourds cross-pollinate very easily, and the seeds the gourd produces will usually not be true, and will produce a gourd with characteristics of both plants.

Another side effect is that the germination rate of the seeds will be very poor. Normal germination for gourd seeds can be as low as 25%, but by hand pollination, germination can be as high as 80% or more.