I had mixed results with root penetration of compost pots and used cut toilet paper rolls instead. Worked well when planted immediately after emergence. The cowpots did work significantly better than wood fiber pots though.
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For any of the bottle gourds (which include birdhouse), luffa, fuzzy melon, snake gourds, etc. I use a pair of nail clippers (toe nail size) and nick the seed shell on the side, soak them for 8 hours then put them in small pots on a heat mat set at 85 degrees. I get about 100% germination and they are up in a week and I plant them out shortly after the second true leaf. They hardly skip a beat and proceed to try to take over my garden.
The shells on these are tough and this makes sure water gets through to get the seed going and weakens the shell to make it easier for the seed to germinate, giving faster and more uniform germination. It might be hard to see in this picture, but these are all nicked on the side and ready to soak.
Your seeds may still come up when the weather gets hotter. These plants really love the heat. You can also look into eating the tender new leaves and shoots - I like them cooked in a curry.
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Yes, we never keep the plant in those compostable pots. They do not break down as advertised. I just pop the plants out and then tear up the pot. I usually throw the pot pieces in the woodchips or compost.
I’m wondering if some of the gourd seeds in the garden row were to sprout if it would be doable to transplant them along the posts of my arbor. It’s easy enough to do with other plants, just don’t know about gourd plants. Chance there will be too many gourds vines close together in garden.
I go out several times a day to see if any has germinated. Maybe I should stop watching them. As the old saying goes “a watched pot never boils”. 
Thank you all for the advice.
Dig them up with a shovel and move them where you want them. I’ve done this hundreds of times with all types of curcurbits including gourds.
The problems with germination are because someone sold you old seed. Sandhill Preservation has several varieties of gourds and tests germination each year. Get better seed.
Your gourds are too close to other vegetables. This is going to cause a ton of problems. BH gourds sprawl immensely, sometimes covering 200 square feet for just one plant. As others stated, it is common for a plant to yield 15 to 20 gourds.
The most successful gourd grower I know never plants seed. He just discs in any leftover gourds from the previous year. So many plants sprout that he has to disc again to kill most of them. He harvests a few thousand gourds from an acre and sells them for a few dollars each. It is almost all profit.
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I wondered about that. The seeds I got from Walmart were dated for this year probably were planted too early. Only 2 of 10 sprouted. Seeds I got from the large local garden and nursery center were not dated and none have sprouted as of yet. They have poor quality control on some of their stuff. They try to sell some of sickest looking tomatoes plants. I would wager that they trash more than they sell.
The package that I got from Walmart was misleading then. It had on it that the growing height was 10-15’. Really not concerned about the gourd that’s planted near okra. Got way too much okra this year planted in two separate spots. Just hope they don’t get in my cousins’ soybean field. They will be sprayed with nasty herbicide if that happens. That will take care of them. 
I’ll get the gourd that’s planted near tomatoes away if they sprout.
Thats interesting about the grower disking gourds in for a crop.
I don’t think it is the age of the seeds unless they are super old, but maybe poor storage could have reduced viability. Even so, my seeds are saved from a gourd I grew 4 years and just kept the seeds in a ziplock sitting out and kept at room temperature. Generally, these seeds are tough as nails, which is of course why I use the nail clipper to chip the edge and help the little fellers escape.
The seeds below are the same ones I had just clipped the edge of the seed shells of 2 days ago and posted a picture of above. After a 4 hour soak in water they were rolled up in lightly moist paper towel in a zip lock and kept around 85 degrees on a heating pad ( just sitting on a tray of germinating pawpaw seeds. All are already germinating. I usually let them go about a day more than this before planting and expect all will be up within a week, possibly 10 days if the weather is cooler. I’ve also pre-sprouted them at room temperature and they’ll usually be germinating within 4 days without the extra heat.
Probably more work than someone doing a lot of planting would want to take on, but I am a bit of a control freak in my little garden, so I like this method since it is very controlled and makes sure I get the seedlings popping up uniformly.
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It amazes me how fast these vines grow, somewhere around a foot in 24 hours. Well, at least the one vine that I left in the garden row. Built a trellis for it. The other plant I transplanted to the arbor. It has taken about a week for it to recover. Another seed sprouted after being planted about 25 days. Goal is to keep all vine off the ground.
If there is 15-20 gourd per vine that will be plenty of birdhouses. Probably about as many seeds in one gourd as in one watermelon, I’m guessing. I’ll be ready next year.
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Now along with the bad luck with seeds germinating I’ve got a durn mole in my gourd nursery row right beside a recently sprouted gourd. Got 3 traps set for him. I’ve trapped a mole in my tomatoes already this year. Don’t know how well poison works.
A storm blew these gourds off my trellis prematurely. The advice for developing purple martin houses state that the vine, stem and leaves should die and turn brown before harvesting the gourds. Then of course they can be further dried before cutting the entrance hole and removing the seeds and pulp.
My question is if it’s possible for these gourds to be still usable for developing the houses even if they came off the vine prematurely? They have the proper size.
Probably not. Green gourds have not thickened the outside shell enough. You can find out by drying them and checking how hard the shell gets.
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