Lagenaria "Birdhouse bottle" (Calebass)

How to grow lagenaria?
Lagenaria seedlings are watered only with warm, settled water when the topsoil dries up. Seedlings do not need frequent and plentiful watering.
If seedlings develop too slowly, you can feed with a complex mineral fertilizer by dissolving 4 g of the powder in 1 liter of water.
However, more than two dressings (with an interval of 10 days) should not be given. A few days before planting, the seedlings are hardened by moving the pots to the loggia.
First for a few hours, then for the whole day and at night. After hardening, plants tolerate transplantation more easily and take root faster in a new place.
* The first true leaves of lagenaria are very different from those typical for it.
This should not confuse you, because as the seedling grows, they die off, and leafy side shoots develop from the sinuses.
* Due to the fact that lagenaria flowers open in the evening, when the bees are not very active, it is advisable to help the plant to pollinate.
To do this, pollen from two or three male flowers must be transferred with a brush to a female flower.
* To increase the yield of lagenaria, it is necessary to stimulate the formation of female flowers. This is achieved by pinching the side shoots.

Suom.: Pullokurpitsa. Sven.: Ätlig Kalebass. Bot. syn.: Cucumis bicirrha Forster ex Guillemin, Cucumis lagenarius Dumort., nom. nud., Cucumis mairei H.Lev., Cucurbita lagenaria L., Cucurbita leucantha Duchesne, Cucurbita longa hort., Cucurbita siceraria Molina, Lagenaria lagenaria (L.) Cockerell, nom. inval., Lagenaria leucantha Rusby, Lagenaria vulgaris Ser.