Gourd Educational

Everyone will develop their own techniques, whether it be in an art form or in growing, drying, and cleaning your crop, but sharing of knowledge from the experience of many leads to greater success for those coming in to the hobby.  Lagenarias are relatively easy to grow, with some small issues, but when they are growing on the vine it is such a wonderful and rewarding experience watching them grow.  We have kept many gardens through the years growing both vegetables and gourds, you would think the food crops would have been our enjoyment, but the reality is nothing satisfied our hearts more than watching these babies grow on the vine, and the fun of curing them then making something useful out of them.  We hope you will find at least something we have offered here to be of value to you in your crafting experience.

• TGR Gourd ID Chart
  
  Identify 30+ varieties of Lagenaria gourds with our finely drawn digital Gourd Chart. This chart has been featured in The American Gourd Societies The Gourd and the Through the Gourdvine publication.
• Tim Moyers Gourd Chart
  
  The original chart drawn by Tim Moyers for The AGS in 1992. This chart also has been featured in The AGS Publication.
• The Gourd Report 1
  
  Gourd cleaning experiments including green cleaning and oven baked to speed up the drying process, and rot cleaning, along with examples and guidelines of what works and what doesn't.
• Rotting gourds updated
  
  Rot cleaning gourds made cleaner and more odor free.
• The Gourd Report 2
  
  Growing gourds, from the problems like cucumber beetles, to increasing the vines pruductivity through pruning. Make the most of your gardening this year.
• Hand Pollination
  
  If you go shopping for a particular type of seed, it is frustrating and a season is lost if the seed does not grow the variety you wanted. Insure your future seeds will grow what you intend to grow.
• Harvest Season
  
  fall is harvest season for gourds, harvest you gourds with care.
• Storing Harvested Gourds
  
  use care in storing your harvested gourds, do not store them in your home or garage.
• Mold and Our Family
  
  we lived in a moldy house, this is the story of what we went through, and are still fighting the effects today.
• Drying
  
  Learn different methods of drying gourds. Before you can craft them, they must be clean and dry. They can dry naturally or they can be green cleaned which speeds up the drying .
• Cleaning
  
  Cleaning in preparation for crating. Be sure to handle your gourd carefully before and during the cleaning process to avoid breathing the mold and dust.
• Molds
  
  Molds are common, but little is known about molds as far as health is concerned. In growing and curing gourds, mold is a common issue, and one you should be aware of and treat with caution if you intend on growing and crafting. Mold is natures recycler, but the last thing you want is for your body to experience stages of decomposition before your time!
• Trinket Box Tutorial
  
  Using the defining shape of bottle gourds, in this case a Japanese Hyakunari, we show you how to create a Trinket Box complete with a catch ring lid.
• Reshaping Pieces
  
  Using the same or similar techniques to bending wood, we have shown our process of creating flat pieces for the Gourd Quilt project. We have used the same or similar techniques to bend pieces to make lid slip bands and more.
• Gourd Photography
  
  Tips and inexpensive equiptment for gourd photography or craft items without the use of expensive studio equipment or the costly fee's of a professional photographer.

With time we do intend on adding new pages covering more topics.