I'm really interested to see the end result of this!

Growing Snake Gourds is still a rather new experience for me. After we tried growing them last year, they quickly became one of my top three garden plants and we hope to have them as a staple in our garden and in our kitchen for years and years to come. This year I'm even running a "Snake Gourd Growing Contest" to encourage others to grow this incredible plant and experiment with it.

In my efforts to grow a long one, I've already had one hit over 50 inches, so I'm very excited. (The photo above was taken when it was younger. As I contemplate how to grow a really long one (I hear that they can reach seven feet in length) I run into a potential issue....

You see, these gourds spend quite a bit of energy growing in width as well as in length. I figure if they were thinner, then they'd have more energy to invest in growing longer, so I decided to try slipping a long plastic tube over a young one in hopes of it staying slimmer and therefore potentially getting longer as a result. Do you think it'll work? Do you think it's "cheating" in a contest? Can you think of a better idea?