The Super Gourd was the first high quality plastic gourd to be offered to the public. This gourd is still one of the best commercial plastic gourds available today and is comparable in quality to other outstanding ones like the Excluder and the Troyer Horizontal and Vertical gourds.
I bought my first Super Gourds from the PMCA I believe around 20 years ago and these gourds are still in fantastic shape. They have been broiling in the hot sun down in north Florida and now in northwest Louisiana and the plastic looks great with NO cracks or other signs of sun damage. The plastic is thick and opaque (non-translucent) and seems almost indestructible. The only part of the Super Gourds which has weathered has been the old style access lids. But now there are heavy duty access lids which are thick and should last probably as long as the gourds. I replaced all my old lids with the new ones.
Now there are some outstanding plastic porches available for Super Gourds and I bought a bunch from the PMCA. The porches arrived the other day and they are high quality just like Super Gourds and these porches are comparable to the excellent Excluder porches. Excluder porches are heavy duty, opaque and highly resistant to sun damage. The Troyer porches have proven to be excellent, too and I have not seen any sun damage on them so far.
I have not used porches on my Super Gourds with round holes as martins really don’t need them to enter their nests. We have used some porches on Super Gourds with crescent entrances at our satellite colonies and these porches have greatly assisted martins in entering these restrictive holes.
But there are some advantages in using porches even on round hole gourds. Porches allow parent martins to more easily feed their growing young when they cluster around the entrance which could be either round or sreh. The parents can sit on the porch and deliver large insect prey like dragonflies and minimize the chances of dropping the food as they feed their young. I have seen martins frequently drop large insects like dragonflies when the martins are trying to cling to a gourd without a porch while their nestlings’ heads are protruding out the entrance.
The inside porches will help martins to more easily exit a tight sreh. A martin can “level out” horizontally on the inside porch before exiting a sreh and this horizontal profile makes it much easier for martins to enter and exit srehs.
Also, an inside porch may even have some anti-predator qualities by reducing visibility inside the gourd from the outside and allowing martins to hunker down in their nests should an owl or hawk try to see or reach the martins.
Since I have had great success with porches on my Excluder gourds, I have decided to use porches on all my Super Gourds beginning with the 2016 martin season.
Here is a summary of the main features of the new Super Gourd porches:
Heavy duty but light weight, plastic ribbed porches made from unbreakable polypropylene plastic infused with UV protectors for long life in the sun.
Aggressive ribbing for traction and bolt securely to the inside/outside of Super Gourds.
Come in pairs and are oval shaped and measure 3 and 5/8 inches long by 4 and 5/16 inches wide.
Porches come pre-drilled with two mounting holes and two stainless steel wiz nuts and steel bolts per pair. You will have to drill holes in your Super Gourds.
Fit both sreh and round hole Super Gourds.
Detailed mounting instructions and a drill-guide template are provided.
I have seen some of the cheaper thin plastic porches that actually bend down and eventually crumble/deteriorate due to sun damage. I doubt very seriously if these Super Gourd porches will do that any time soon!
While these porches are outstanding in quality, there may be some issues with attaching them to Super Gourds if the entrance area is a little bowed. Unlike the Excluder, which has a flat area around the entrance, some of my Super Gourds have a slight bowed front area where the entrance hole is located; maybe more recent Super Gourds have a more flatten profile in this area. So you may be dealing with curves when attaching a straight angled porch underneath the entrance hole. The instructions for attaching the porches discuss this problem and you can use a pair of straight-jawed, tongue-and-groove pliers to somewhat flatten the area just under the entrances as necessary. I used pliers and it did work for the most part. Also, when you tighten the bolts to hold the porch, the porch will usually conform to the curves of the gourd. You don’t want the porch to have any upward angle as this will allow more rainwater to flow in the gourd if the porch is flush with the entrance. If the porch has a slight downward profile, there is really no problem here and may even help to keep rainwater out of the entrance. If you do have any gaps between the porch and gourd surface which might allow a martin’s toenail to become caught, just use some caulk to fill them in.
And make sure you don’t decrease the height of the crescent when attaching the porch flush with the entrance by having the porch just a little too high. Make sure the first elevated traction rib is flush with the flat bottom of the hole. You can have the porch just a tad lower down, around 1/16 inch. If the porch is too high, then martins may not be able to enter. If too low, then starlings may be able to force their way in. There is a template with the instructions for attaching the porch.
Also it can be a little challenging actually attaching the outside and inside porches using the provided bolts. You have to insert your hand inside the Super Gourd, get the bolts in the holes, hold the porch and use a screw driver to tighten the bolts from the outside. I had the same issue when attaching porches to my Excluder Gourds but I survived the ordeal! If I could attach porches to my 36 Excluders, I am sure I can do the same with my Super Gourds!
Well, I have “experimented” with two Super Gourds and attached outside/inside porches to both. One gourd has a round hole and the other a crescent. I use all round holes in my personal martin colony and we use all crescents in our satellite colonies. These were my first ones and it wasn’t too difficult of a job. As I do more of them and become more efficient in attaching the porches, the job will probably get easier!
Overall I am most impressed with these Super Gourd porches. They are high quality and built to last for a long time. I would prefer buying a superior product that lasts than one that will fail quickly and has to be replaced periodically. These porches may be even appropriate for other plastic gourd models, particularly ones with flatten areas around the entrances. If you have Super Gourds or perhaps other plastic models and you are looking for heavy duty porches, please check out the PMCA’s online catalog and see if these new gourd porches would work for you.
Here is the link: http://shop.purplemartin.org/SuperGourd ... tails.aspx
Here are some photos of the new Super Gourd porches.
This photo shows the top and bottom of the porches. You can see the aggressive ribbing on the top which will allow martins to easily grip the surface and hold on to the porch. The bottom is well supported with a “lattice” looking format which will provide a strong foundation to help keep the porch from bending.
This photo shows a porch attached to the front of a Super Gourd with round hole and with crescent. You can have the porches flush with the entrance. One problem with flush entrances is rainwater. Rainwater can more easily splash inside the gourd.
This photo shows a porch attached to the front of a Super Gourd with crescent and the gourd is hanging on a Gourd Mounting Arm (GMA). My Super Gourds swing front to back and so do my Excluders. The porch on the Excluder does not cause the gourd to significantly tip forward even with a martin perched on it and I believe the same situation will exist with the Super Gourd. Now if I had tunnels on these gourds, I would change the swing to side to side like I have on my Troyer Horizontals and Verticals to keep the gourd from tipping down. You can change your Super Gourds to a side to side swing by drilling a new hanging hole in the front of the neck.
This photo shows a porch attached to the front of a Super Gourd with round hole and the gourd is hanging on a GMA.
This photo shows the inside porch of a crescent Super Gourd. The inside porch assists martins in exiting srehs and may even provide some anti-predator features. The porch may help to reduce visibility on the inside from the outside and allow martins to hunker down in their nests.
This photo shows the inside porch of a round hole Super Gourd.
This photo show inside porches of both a crescent and round hole Super Gourd together.
Steve
