Air Drying Gourds: Benefits and Drawbacks of Natural Drying

A three-month or more process of drying gourds by nature can be greatly accelerated by a few techniques we've learned through time and experimentation. In this article, we will look at the natural method of just letting them dry out over time and some of the benefits and downfalls to this process.

Gourds will dry out on their own given time. If you do not want to fuss with your gourds and wish to let them dry naturally, then probably the best and fastest natural method is leave them out during the winter. The cold winter air will not only help to suck the moisture out of them, but the snow and dampness will even help to remove the skin, thus making the cleaning process easier. The biggest problem with the natural method is as the gourds dry out, mold will grow on the surface of the gourd.

Do not put your gourds into an attached garage or into your home to dry. Gourds are 90% water, and they take a long time to dry out, 1-3 months for small gourds, 3-6 months for medium gourds, and some really large gourds can take a year. During this slow process the moisture slowly but continually leaches through the thick hard shell. Because of this, the shell is continually damp and mold will grow on the surface. Mold is bad for your health and some species of mold can be very dangerous, so the last thing you want is for mold to be sporulating in your home or garage.

Drying gourds outside, it is best to get them off the ground if possible, if you have some wooden pallets, they can be stacked on these. If not, gourds can be spread out or stacked in a pile on the ground until spring time. the problem with allowing gourds to sit on the ground is, the moisture in the ground will keep the gourds overly wet and insects that like to live underthings at ground level will eat holes in your gourds. one year we even had a gourd that got invaded by termites.