How to Dry Out and Rot Clean Gourds

The rot-cleaning method sounds raunchy, and it is. It is literally what it sounds like. To rot clean a gourd, you do not need to wait for the gourd to begin drying. You do not need to wait 3 months for your gourd to dry before crafting it. And you do not have to scrub the skin off the gourd after it is dry because it will come off during the rotting process.

Rot cleaning a gourd is exactly that. Take your gourd and drill a hole in it large enough for seeds to pass through, or if you are planning to make a purse, box, bowl, or other craft that is going to require a cut, go ahead and make your cuts. Next, you need a barrel or a bucket large enough to submerge the gourd in. After drilling or cutting your gourd, stick something through the hold like a coat hanger or something, and stab into it at different angles. this is to allow water to penetrate as much of the area as possible. Fill the bucket or barrel with water, put your drilled or cut gourd pieces into the bucket or barrel then cover the container with something to hold the gourd pieces completely underwater. Let the gourd soak in the bucket for 3 weeks.

Now comes that nasty part. After soaking for three weeks, what you have done is to literally create a rotting medium and allowed the insides of the gourd to rot away. All of the pulp will be an oozie mush, but the seeds and the shell of the gourd will be in tact. CARRY THE BUCKET AWAY FROM YOUR HOUSE! when you open the bucket to dump it, it is going to smell like the rot it is, and I mean it is going to stink horribly. If the wind is blowing toward your neighbors, they are going to hate you for a while after this. Once you dump all the innards and the water out, rinse the gourd and the bucket well with water, refill the bucket and soak it again for a couple weeks, and this will reduce the smell a great deal.

After rot cleaning gourds this way, you can repeat soaking for a few days at a time, and do this a few times and this too will help to reduce the smell some. This process of rotting gourds is an age old method, and many cultures around the world use this method of cleaning and curing their gourds. Rot cleaning gourds will have a gourd ready to craft in a number of weeks instead of months and the surface will be evenly colored and textured due to the lack of mold growth, but the smell may stay with the gourd for a long long time.

One of the members of The Gourd Reserve group developed a method of rot cleaning gourds that has reduced the odor by a very large degree. Instead of leaving the gourd in the water for 3 weeks allowing the rotting bacteria to grow unchecked, he soaks his gourds for 5 days, pulls them out of the water and removes what will easily remove, then puts fresh water back in and repeats until the gourd is cleaned out and only the shell remains.

Gourds are an artistic medium. If you would like to learn more about gourds, please visit The Gourd Reserve, with over 800 pages of gourd related information and artwork. You can also find more short articles on gourds and growing gourds here on my AC producer page.