Bottle gourd · Taza, Fes-Meknes, Morocco
When to plant bottle gourds in Taza
Main outdoor window
4-25 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
18 February
In Taza, 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 Taza
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
21 Jan - 11 Feb
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
4-25 Mar
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
4-25 Mar
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Aug - 31 Oct
Bottle gourds through the year
Against the frost risk in Taza
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 Taza.
The median frost-free season here is 297 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 Taza
Other vegetables to time
Growing bottle gourds in Taza
When should I plant bottle gourds in Taza?
Aim for 4-25 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 29 Mar - 19 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will bottle gourds be ready to harvest in Taza?
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.