Cross Pollinating Gourds: Getting Perfectly Shaped and Sized Gourds

Cross pollinating gourds is fun, and you can achieve some beautiful results if you have a little idea of what you're getting into and give it a little forethought. When you cross pollinate a gourd, you will not see the results immediately; the result of your cross pollination process will occur in next year's crop. It is the seed that carries the genetic mix you selected this year.

Before you start, be sure you read the hand pollination article here on Associated Content, or study the hand pollination tutorial on the Gourd Reserve web site so you know how to make a successful hand pollination without.

How to select your female for cross pollinating gourds: When gourds get cross pollinated, there are two things to consider, size and shape. The female will carry the greatest influence on the size of the next generation. Think of it this way. If you have a small female gourd and you are crossing it with a larger gourd, the pollen is not going to change the female into a different size or shape, it is only going to influence the genetics in next years crop. A small female can only produce small seeds, and small gourds will result.

How to select your male for cross pollinating gourds: The male will not create a replica of itself in the cross pollination process, but it will influence the shape of next years gourd. The Japanese have some beautiful large bottle gourds with the top half being shaped with somewhat of a point to them. In an effort, during our last year of growing gourds, to try to re-create a similarly shaped gourd, we took a Japanese Hyakunari and an African Zulu, and cross pollinated the male Hyakunari flower with the female Zulu. The next year we planted the seeds from the resulting gourds, and we got Zulu sized gourds with the same shape as the Zulu with the exception that the rounded top of the Zulu now had a distinctive raise to it coming to a gentle point. Had we been able to continue the process, we would have taken another hyakunari male and crossed it with the new Zulu to further enhance or accent the shape of the top.