Gourd "cooling caps"

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birdman in buckhead
Posts: 181
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:47 am
Location: Small Town Buckhead, GA (not ATL Buckhead)
Martin Colony History: 2018: 1 pair, 5 fledged
2019: 3 pairs, 10 fledged
2020: 3 pairs, 13 fledged
2021: 13 pairs, 46 fledged
2022: 22 pairs, 89 fledged
2023: 20 pairs, 85 fledged
2024: 18 pairs, 80 fledged
2025: 17 pairs, 80 fledged

Doug, that's funny. Have to throw in a cigarette or 2 for warming purposes.
Agree - Dailey's gourd would definately need a smoking area! Regardless, I love(d) the guy because he is/was a normal dude who didn't care what others thought about his habits. I watched a video of him (and I think Kid Rock) playing a round bare foot! It was priceless!

So concerning cooling caps it's a "can't hurt, but don't know if they help" type thing. That leads to my question: Have there been any studies done by PMCA or an individual concerning what does and doesn't work to help cool temperatures inside of gourds?

To answer one question: Yes, I had jumpers 2 years ago, but none last year after adding the "Ernie Ells" to gourd clean out caps. However, there was no extended heat wave last year like there was in 2022, so I'm not postive the elbows really work, but I certainly think they increase ventilation. So I believe they are worth the time, effort and expense. My jury is still out on cooling caps.
GEAUX TIGERS!

Cheers!
Terry
Thomas Maddox
Posts: 580
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2021 5:23 pm
Location: Sulphur, Louisiana

Thanks Terry and definitely Geaux Tigers!
killerv
Posts: 44
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:40 am
Location: Central Ga

I added the caps you posted to my sk gourds, I believe they helped, had jumpers the year before I did it, didn't after that I know of. Usually my gsp brings them to me unfortunately. They can be an absolute pain to try to line up the holes in the cap with the holes in the gourd to install on the rod. Half my gourds also have the pvc elbows installed, but I actually left them plugged last year and only used the cooling caps. No jumpers. But...I am going to go ahead and install the elbows on all my gourds this year. Hardware store is proud of pvc this year, its a little less headache just to purchase the side caps with the elbows already installed from troyer or whoever instead of going to hardware store, have to drill the hole out, install, silicone, etc.
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