Hi Charlene,
This is my first year in growing birdhouse gourds, and I'm going to wait untill the gourdstems are dried up some to brown before I'm going to pick them. I was told that that was the best way to do so. Sofar they have not turned brown yet and with the warmer weather comming up this weekend,..... maybe they will grow a little longer. One of them is already over 24" around at the base. I got my info from Jan, see under "birdhouse gourd" in the gourd forum.
I got several green gourds from a friend of mine last year, so I started out by drying gourds first. I placed mine on a drying rack in the basement by the furnace because the furnace drew moisture out of the air so that dried them out a little faster. I also placed a few on our back porch ( inclosed) by the basement entry way and both of them started to rott and were "mushy" and had to pitch them in the garbage. There was some black mold on the ones by the furnace but I guess that is normal. The two I dried by the furnace turned out real nice and I made birhouses out of both of them. The seeds I harvested from the smaller one, I guess were not mature enough because the seeds never sprouted. But the seeds from the bigger one I have grown several gourds now. When I harvest these I am going to wash them in diluted bleach water, dry them with a papertowel and place them in old pantyhose and hang them from the beams in the basement and some I'll dry the same way I did last year. We'll just have to see wich once will do the best. IT'S ALL TRIAL AND ERROR.
I hope this helps,......Happy Gourd Day
Mariel

You know Charlene, I have grown gourds for about five years now.. and I have never picked any until after the first frost. However - I was out there the other night and I have several that the vine is brown and dried up quite a ways up. Boy - I was tempted to get a couple, but I didn't. Might still pick one this weekend -- then again, maybe I'll chicken out and wait another couple of weeks!! LOL!

Boy, that is the hardest so far. Waiting until they are dried. I can see some color change on them though. So then I should also wait until they are dried to get the seeds, because they are prob not matured yet?

I have some that the vines have already dried right up to the gourd that I've cut off and moved off to the side . It seems funny that the bigger gourds seem to be the ones that the stems are drying on first and the smaller long handled dipper gourds are taking forever .
I've also noticed , that even though some of the larger gourds still have green stems, they seem to be drying just the same . When I pick them up , they already feel VERY light and hollow even though they are about 24 + " around !
This is my first year with gourds, so it's all pretty much trial and error here . Good luck eveyone !