Timothy Coolong, Extension vegetable specialist, spoke with Martha Stewart about what gourds actually are.
Of the 975 species of gourd, some of the ones people are most likely to see include gourds, snake gourds, apple gourds, nest egg gourds and penguin gourds.
“Many specialty pumpkins and squash that are sold as ‘fall/winter’ squash are sometimes called gourds, too,” Coolong said.
Typically, gourds can’t be eaten and are better for decorative purposes.
“There are pie pumpkins that you can eat, but there are some hard-shell pumpkins that are better used exclusively as decorations in the same way a gourd would be,” Coolong said.
Anyone interested in growing gourds should know that they’re a long-season crop, usually needing at least 120 days to grow and mature. But they can be treated like growing pumpkins or other squash.
“Some growers will trellis the gourds to keep them off the ground and produce cleaner, higher quality fruit as well — particularly some of the smaller gourds,” Coolong said. “On the other hand, there are some very large kettle gourds (think hundreds of pounds) that wouldn’t work on a trellis.”