I have been growing gourds for several years now and have tried to clean them numerous ways. I thought maybe someone would be interested in a few pointers. First of all if you grow the gourds let then mature on the vine. Don’t pick them until the vine dies.

After picking I dip them in a bleach and water mixture and then store then in a place where they will get good air circulation. I have a shed I put mine in and I try to spread them out so they don’t touch each other.

Drying time varies according to the gourd. Some will dry in a few months and others like the apple gourd can take a year to completely dry. They will look nasty while going through the drying process. They are usually covered with mold and often smell. Some will rot, this can’t be prevented it just seems to happen but if it happens to a lot of your gourds you may want to rethink where you are putting them to dry.

Also that outer skin is the protective covering for your gourds and if you remove it, then you are only inviting trouble into your gourds. This also means, don’t cut ANY large holes and scrape out the insides. In most cases, the gourd will cave in and collapse. If a gourd is not dried, then nothing should be done to it until it is.

After drying then it is time to clean them I usually wrap each gourd in a few damp paper towels and let them sit for a couple hours. Then all the outer layers peel away easier and you have a nice, pretty finished gourd…ready for whatever you want to make out of it.