Homeowner Forum / Lawn and Garden / July 2007

"Bird House" gourds must be the Godzillas of the cucurbit family. Mine
(1) has gone nuts and I have been pruning it to keep it from hogging the
entire 7' X 7' trellis. Has anybody else experienced this? It is inches
from a kumquat tree and I presume from it's previous behavior, it will
wrap the tree up it up like a spider does a fly, if I let it. So I guess
what I'm asking is (1) Is this  explosive growth normal?, (2) Does
pruning create any other problems?, (3) Am I right in thinking that I
need to control the vegetative growth so that the root structure won't
squeeze-out the other plants on the trellis ( a jiaogulan [vinous
ginseng, sorta] and a Tromba d'Albenga). Most of my soil, outside the
beds, is rock hard clay and this particular bed is 8' X 5' with yarrow
and pot marigolds.

I'm hoping the up-shot of it all will be fewer, larger gourds. Any
second opinions?