Bottle gourd · Tacoma, Washington, United States
When to plant bottle gourds in Tacoma
Main outdoor window
27 Mar - 17 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
13 March
In Tacoma, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Aug - 31 Oct
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Tacoma
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
13 Feb - 6 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
27 Mar - 17 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
27 Mar - 17 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Aug - 31 Oct
Bottle gourds through the year
Against the frost risk in Tacoma
Why these dates
Sow two weeks after the last frost. Flowers open at night and are moth-pollinated, so in cool climates hand pollination in the evening improves the set considerably.
Killed at 0C. Gourds intended for drying need to stay on the vine until the stem browns, which a first frost cuts short.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Bottle gourds are timed from 4 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Tacoma.
The median frost-free season here is 252 days, against 90 to 120 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Tacoma
Other vegetables to time
Growing bottle gourds in Tacoma
When should I plant bottle gourds in Tacoma?
Aim for 27 Mar - 17 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 25 Apr - 16 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will bottle gourds be ready to harvest in Tacoma?
Expect to start picking around 1 Aug - 31 Oct, based on 90 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will bottle gourds tolerate?
Killed at 0C. Gourds intended for drying need to stay on the vine until the stem browns, which a first frost cuts short.