Since our prior approaches to gourd cultivation seem to have fallen short in terms of available space/nutrients for the plants, we obtained a plow/tiller unit for the tractor in the Spring of 2003 and set up 'patches' at several spots around the farm.  Plants were started in the greenhouse and transferred to the tilled areas in 6" pots.  These were placed along drip lines fitted with both drip and sprinkler emmiters, well mulched with bermuda grass hay, and enclosed within an arbor.  As indicated above, growth and development under these conditions was good, as was flowering and fruit production.

The gourd patch pictured above included plants from seed present in the 'Mexican Bottle', held by toni Wilson, fruit below.	The 'Mexican Bottle' progeny produced a pretty good crop of fruit, but few matched the parent with regard to size.  Since all are consistent with the parent in terms of general shape, its reasonable to assume that the cultivator producing the original fruit from Mexico was only growing this type of bottle gourd.	We also got a pretty good crop of white canteen gourds from the arbor pictured above.  This is a tupe of canteen that features a thick pericarp.