STEEMIT SEED SAVERS – BIRDHOUSE GOURDS
Wow, this was a surprise!
For some years now, we have been meaning to grow some of these. Finally, we managed to get some seeds planted this year, of which we wound up with one vine…
Thankfully, even though we only had one vine growing, it managed to produce seven mature birdhouse gourds. We have been patiently waiting since they formed, and finally one became completely dry.
As with many other garden plants, when you are saving gourds like this for seeds, it can be best to allow them to completely mature and dry on the vine. Once they become fully dry, they should be rather light and might even rattle.
This one was certainly light, and once I gave it a few good shakes, you could hear the seeds break loose and begin to rattle inside. Since we plan on turning some of these into birdhouses, we will be waiting for the rest of them to get ready so we can enjoy making the birdhouses together as a family, but, for now, we wanted to make sure to get some seeds saved, so here’s our process.
TIME TO SAVE THOSE SEEDS!
Our basic process was simple, and other than the mature, dry gourd, we only used a razor blade and short section of wire.
With the razor blade I began to cut a small hole in the side of the dry gourd. I lined it up where we will eventually make the hole so that this gourd can be used as a birdhouse, but the hole that I am making will be smaller. Since it is just to be able to get the seeds out of the gourd, it doesn’t have to be large enough to fit a bird into the gourd yet.
The hole that I made was smaller than an American quarter dollar.
With the short section of wire, I scraped the inside of the gourd to make sure all of the seeds and dried parts inside the gourd were loose and prepared to be removed.
With a little shaking, some seeds began to pour out…
And then some more, and some more, and some more…
By the time that they all made it out, over 300 seeds came out! A few were underdeveloped, but the vast majority were fully mature and ready for next growing season. I was really amazed at how many were in there!
All in all, there was very little inside of that gourd that was waste. Most of its contents were good seeds! Interestingly enough, this was one of the smaller birdhouse gourds on the vine too. I wonder if a few of the bigger ones might have 400 or 500 good seeds inside. I guess that time will tell and we will see, but that’s crazy to think about.
ALL FROM ONE SEED
The one seed that we planted produced seven gourds which may each have 300 or more seeds in them. That’s like getting over 2000 seeds back just from planting one. I even bet that you could sell seeds like this for about 10 cents each, which would be the equivalent of bringing in over $200 off of the seeds from just one plant, not to mention potentially selling the dried gourds as birdhouses.
Soon we will be able to see what’s inside of the other gourds. Technically, I counted 293 “good ones” in this gourd, and we still have six more to go.
Have any of you ever grown your own birdhouse gourds? If so, did you make any birdhouses out of them, and did the birds like them or use them? If not, would you like to try to grow some of these? If you would like to try, and if you are in the United States, I would be willing to send you some free seeds… just because I can. Let me know below if you are interested!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-saving-birdhouse-gourd-seeds
Until next time…
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Amazing... In Chinese, this is called 葫芦 and we have a famous cartoon movie 葫芦娃 based on this..
good production
we are all one family
I think most people don't realize how lucky we are to be a part of this as a community. Things of this magnitude are usually only available to the elite. If the power of the community could be harnessed the growth could be exponential.
Thanks for sharing ,
Upvoted !
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I agree, cool people on here.
Interestingly, I never knew the English name till now. :-)
Not seen anything like those gourds before, here we usually use them but the smaller lanky ones to drink palm wine usually by the elders though. But am glad to see another shape and sizes here, would have loved to plant some of those maybe this time around for a bird houses like you shared... haha. Good job master.
Just curious, why do the elders drink palm wine?
Haha... well its has become part of our culture especially in Nigeria. Palm wine is a kind of local wine that is mostly enjoyed by the elders and sometimes the young. Its already a part of us and part of the tradition here.
Interesting. Does it have a hallucinogenic and/or sedative effect? By the way, thanks for being an inspiring Steemian in general and connecting on here! 🤡 🤠 😏 😒 😞 I hope you have a wonderful day!
Thank you very much. The pleasure is all mine.
You're welcome. Just curious does it induce euphoria?
Yes it does naturally, coupled with the excitement that comes with drinkibg with friends. Thats it basically.
Interesting I thought so especially with the elders using it.
Oh, dear! 😍 May you be well, good man! I really love growing! I'm in the search of land for the organization of a closed ecoplant and garden! Your pumpkins are fit, but alas I'm in Germany! 😘😗😙😚🤗🤗
I read your comment quickly and it looked like you said closed elephant LOL. I like pumpkin pie. I think Poland may be a good place to source organic seeds.
I do not doubt this! I visited Poland in September! Fantastic nature! But my search will continue! 😍😘😙😚🤗🤗
The reason I said that is just because I know some people here in SA supposedly buy fulvic acid from Poland. They make the fulvic acid from coal deposits I understand.
Yes, it is those laws about shipping plants and animals internationally... otherwise...
otherwise monsanto will go out of business, plus many big agricultural corporations. and people will be healthier and require less medical treatment LOL
Lagenaria siceraria Tecomates mate, calabaza de peregrino, [1] guaje, bule, jícaro o acocote.
This is the amazing plant that you speak about that in your wonderful post.
Well I would like to gets this seeds because here in El Salvador the spice are very rarely but I explain you the uses for it.
For example if you see the form of this fruits here are uses as a bottles for carry or transporter water inside from home to your work for example when you in the morning need to carry water from your yard you could clean the tecomate and put inside water and you do not have problem because this fruits are impermeables, how do you prepared it for this.
Well when this are ready for harvest you cut directed from the plant ok. In the up parts you could cut a hole in the up parts a hole and clean carefully with water and with a line of metal try to do not hurt the fruits ok.
Well when you are sure that you have clean the inside clean with water a lot of time ok for be sure of have the interior very clean and when it is success you could uses this fruit as a recipe for transported water. For work you maybe transport around 1, 2 or 3 litters of water for drink very clean and very fresh this is the principal characteristic of this the water let very fresh inside I do not know but this is the secret ok, if a chemistry here that explain about the process.
You should found an instrument to close and open the hole that you do in the up of the Tecomate ok. Maybe a half of fruit of corn parts in the center of corn fruits. ok here we know as OLOTE.
Ahhhhh if you see this fruit have a center entrains ok like a shoulder, ok in this part you could put a rope to carry and hang up this in some tree or in your arm ok.
This beautiful tools for carry water was very useful by our indigenes here in Central America, and for homesteading old people in their homestead, but with the recently invention of plastic this amazing and beautiful tools was abandoned for bottles of plastic for transportation and carry water.
Sorry for my bad English but it is not my natural language but I would like and very very pleasure if you read this and try to convert your pumpling (Tecomates) in a bottle for carry and enjoy fresh water.
Best Regard @galberto.
Probably a healthier way to transport water than plastic bottles!
My friend the healthy it is the most important parts, for this reason our old people lived more than us.
But a something very important is the fresh water, inside of this TECOMATESthe water temperature stay near to 20 or 25 degrees centigrades, and when you work hard in the homestead, you need hydrated you with fresh water for feel better.
Thank you for comment and please, tell papapeppers some seeds for your land and plant your own tecomates they are the best bottles than plastic.
Best regard @galberto.
Thanks for this information @galberto! Do you also homestead?
Yes i am a homestead in my parents house there is a homestead and i every free time help my father in thw homestead, with his corn, and beans harvest and we plants some fruits like bananas, oranges and some wild plants, i loved to move wild endible plants to our homestead because you get fresh food to eat and have better life quality and save money in the food right.
For this reason was very interesting for me see the tecomates because i am try to get the seeds for plants it
In the little homestead.
I love to foraging it is the best art that you could practice because it is give you independency and a lot of knowledge about endible plants to eat.
Thank you for answer my question.
You're welcome and thanks for connecting on here!
Thank you very much i apreciated its
You're welcome have a great day!
Post about water pumpkin seedling, good post @papa-pepper
nyan boh labu tanoh nan jih
That's a great pumpkin seed @papa-pepper. the shape of the pump is very beautiful. great post papa
beautiful pumpkin fruit comrades,
and plants that are easy to plant.
Nature is so wonderful! Awesome post!
I have grown gourds and wanted to turn them into rattles. But they ended up going bad during storage. I later read that you are supposed to wash them with peroxide after harvesting to kill any potential fungi and such.
Looking forward to see your bird houses :)
Good tip! We will show the whole process that we use when we make our birdhouses.
Of course you will :) If I have learned one thing since I am on steemit - it is chronical everything we do with a camera :)
LOL - Now you've got it!