An uncleverly titled gourd post

[sarcasm/ON ]
This is just a basic update without a clever title or any “Dreamworks” quality laser eyed special effects. If my previous gourd posts have unfairly raised your expectations, I offer my most sincere and heartfelt apologies.
[sarcasm/OFF]

After branch runners of some of the gourd vines withered a couple weeks ago, I was afraid the decline have overtaken the entire vine by now. Not so.

Actually, the vines seem to have started a second wave of runners off the established root systems. The leaves appear to be a little smaller but the runners are quite vigorous. Here you can see the spotty vine remnants on the trellis in the background and the new grown off the base of the tower and running along the ground under the trellis.

This is good news for the obvious reason but also for the fact that the entire bed and the ground immediately around it is fully shaded again – this should be of great benefit for moisture consistency over the last of these hot days.

Little vines, little leaves, any gourds setting?

Uh, yes. This one is an example of a 5 or 6 day old gourd (after the pollination, not flowering), so fresh it still has its spiny bug repelling fuzz on it. I assume this offers some protection for the young soft shelled gourd from nuisance bug attacks.

I have mixed emotions since it appears that all 60 or so of the first wave appear to be doing just fine even as the host vines have suffered. The late vine in the corner compost pile is coming on strong now with its first wave of fruits- most appear to be like the larger, lighter green gourds that helped topple the tower a few weeks ago.

A couple of these were developing in the mesh and fortunately I noticed and pulled them out before they became one with the rusted metal and sealed their own doom. (I don’t suppose the local firemen would have been amused if I asked them to bring their “jaws of life” contraption to save them later.)

I find the corner vine to be every bit the opportunist as the other vines. First, it smothered the ugly wire scrap metal while making good use of it. Now it has managed to neatly escape along the ally side of the fence in order to catch the western sun in the afternoon. I haven’t had to redirect it away from the gate yet although left to its own devices it would have it covered before Labor day.

Well I hope this fascinating gourd update tides you all over for another week or two. That’s all for now. 🙂