The process of harvesting of bird house gourds can be safely begun as soon as the stems of the gourds have dried out and have turned brown in color. The first thing that you should do is cut up the gourd while leaving some inches of the stem attached to the gourds. The best time to begin harvesting bird house gourds is before the setting of frost – is it severe or mild.
Remove Immature Gourds While Harvesting Bird House Gourds
You should also be careful that when harvesting bird house gourds that immature gourds will generally not survive for too long while severe frost will also spoil the soft skin of the gourd and so it is necessary to begin harvesting bird house gourds before frost starts to set in. The fact is that even a mild frost will affect the gourd and the color will change and this in turn means that drying of the gourds will not succeed as required.
Also, before harvesting bird house gourds you need to ensure that you do not include gourds that have marks of bruising on them or which are in any other way spoiled. These spoiled as well as bruised gourds will only decay during the drying process and so should not be included in the drying phase.
In any case, harvesting bird house gourds requires that the gourds must be completely matured so that there is minimum chance of their being spoiled during the storage process. You need to check the stem and only when it turns brown and shows signs of drying should the harvesting bird house gourds begin.
It is not a good idea to check the gourd for ripeness through the ‘fingernail test’. In case you accidentally dent or even break the shell of the gourd while it is still unripe the bruising and denting will render the gourd useless. Therefore, only begin the harvesting bird house gourds after the fruit has ripened and also just before the onset of frosting.
The cutting of the gourds should be done with a pair of sharpened shears or even with a fruit knife and always let a few inches of the stem remain attached so as to prevent bruising and denting.
After the harvesting bird house gourds has been done you then must learn how to dry the bird house gourds. This should not be too difficult because there is enough information available regarding this and other processes of growing and curing the bird house gourds.
