Gourd vine decline II, with pictures

As I was considering adding these gourds to the mix last winter, I searched the web for some decent pictures of the vine’s growth habits. I found a fair number but mainly they were shots of farmhouses and fences covered in what might as well have been kudzu.
I really was more curious about the cycle of the vines and gourds themselves as there were plenty of descriptive black and white print ag/extension bulletins but few worthwhile pictures. Maybe they are out there somewhere but I got tired of filtering through the hundreds or thousands of gourd “art” sites that the searches pulled up – lots of interesting carved and painted gourds but not at all what I was looking for at the time.

You might sense that I am setting you up for a gourd garden picture mega-post.

You would be right, although “mega” might be a little of an exaggeration.

OK, so I followed the suggestion of BackYardFreshFoods (with a name like that, who wouldn’t?) and cut the withered vine in a couple of places this morning to test the fluid viscosity of what oozed out. I wouldn’t call it conclusive but I didn’t get the sticky or stringy consistency I was expecting. I still think this to be a bacterium wilt case after reading more last night but it really doesn’t matter at this point- I can’t stop or slow the wilt in the afflicted vines, so I will keep them all well watered and see how the gourds that are left hanging on the dead vines fare.

Ok, now for the pictures:

Closer shot of the giant wilted void in yesterday’s post:

Close up of one of the wilted vine branches (this is a dairy cow manure compost pile that has composted down to 1/4 of its original mass- ready for bed replenishing this fall.

A shot from back beside the tower along the fence. The green parts of the vine beyond the wilted area is actually another vine planted in the compost pile in the corner of the yard; it is younger and just now really “launching”.)

The trellis netting area also was hit- these are the far reaches of the vines going the other way on the other side of the tower from the area above:

And finally, some leaves that display spots that match the description in the bulletins of squash bug damage.

Not a “mega” picture post but hopefully some other ambitious garden fool will find these next winter, when they are wondering what gourd vines are really like and whether they want to give it a shot.

Thanks for the previous comments and suggestions; I’m really curious now about whether the “mature” gourds are actually developed enough to dry and work with this winter. We’ll see, but I think most are in good shape.