How close together for gourds

[MY FYN 79]

Hi Folks,

I’m building a couple new Martin poles and gourd racks. The first ones I built the bolts to hold the gourds were 22” apart. How close have people put gourds next to each other without issue?

The closer I can put the gourds together the smaller and lighter the rack can be, but I want it to be functional also.

Thanks for any thoughts!

[C.C.Martins]

22 inches from gourd wall to gourd wall sounds about right. Never measured them, suppose i should.
What you'd want to consider is can you access the gourd through the cap, will they sway and bump each other and finally porch domination. If too close, a pair will decide they are theirs.
Had porch domination problems last season, one pair took 3 gourds on a standard rack. Only until egg laying happened did they relent and allow others to nest.

Porch domination could very well nix added gourds if that pair is strong enough. In my case it was the female, she was just a terror...wore her mate out jumping from one gourd to another to another right in succession.

[MY FYN 79]

This isn’t the best picture of one of our gourd racks, but it gives you an idea what 22” on the pin looks like. It feels like a lot compared to something like a Gemini, but maybe not.

[C.C.Martins]

Yeah that helps, good picture. You know, if it allows you to do nest checks, id say go for what you want to do! 22 inches is a good bit of space, your right! I think there's always going to be those alpha martins hogging space, its what they want to do.
Iv a lonestar gourd rack full of natural gourds of all shapes and sizes, big thing for me was movement (I hate that-they dont care), and access for nest checks. I was able (once they were put up-not by design), to stagger the porches at diffrent levels, so one is lower one higher and so on, all by accident.

You sure could crunch the 22 inches down, long as it works for you. I like your rack, looks solid!

[MY FYN 79]

I ended up building a 2 level octagon. Gonna build another one also because I acquired two very heavy duty 3.5 poles which were leftovers from a construction project. Gonna go worm gear winches and everything this time around.

Have to wait some time before painting the gourd racks because it’s crazy how wet some of the treated lumber is when you buy it.

Status quo for 2026 but it should get crazy for 2027 once all the new poles and racks are ready!

[C.C.Martins]

Wow, well done! Looks amazing! Its going to be tough just looking at it for most of a year isn't it? Once its up it isn't going anywhere sir!
Please share your completed project, like to see it!

Yeah that treated lumber gets sticky doesn't it? I don't want to know what they put in it!
Best this season sir!
Tom

[Elmo]

IMpressive. How do you think that will hold up in strong winds? I had my aluminum house bent over six years ago with some impressive straight line winds.

[MY FYN 79]

The octagons are quite heavy, but I’m not concerned because of how heavy the poles are. I probably wouldn’t build something like this with a normal aluminum pole.