Tips for Growing Luffa Gourds

The smaller one is 10 inches long.

Recently, a friend told me that she had picked up a packet of luffa seeds to grow this summer.  After having spent last summer struggling with my own luffa plants, I decided to do some more investigating about their cultivation.

Here is what I learned:

Luffas are in the same genus as squashes, namely, Curcurbita which also includes cucumbers and melons.

Luffas require a very long growing season.  Some sources cite as much as 150 to 200 days for some varieties. However, there are some that are ready in as little as 120 days under optimal growing conditions.

Luffas are edible as any other squash would be up until they get to be about 8 or 9 inches long.  Cook and eat as you would zucchini.

Luffas are vigorous growers and will climb just about any support.

Female Luffa Flower

While all of that is very interesting, here is what I learned last year on my own:
 
Luffas are divas.  If the conditions are not just exactly right, then they won't germinate, grow, flower, produce fruit or anything.  The seeds I planted last year in early May that finally lead to the flowers and fruits you see on this page took about six weeks to germinate and begin to grow.  I despaired of ever having any vines, much less flowers and fruits.

The soil temperature must be 70 F or greater or they just don't do a thing other than pump out stem and leaves.  It was nearly August before I had a viable female flower.  Yes, like other members of this family, the pollen is produced by one flower type and the ovary by the other.

Male luffa flowers on top, Tennessee Spinner gourds underneath.

The vines will be SWARMING with insects.  Mostly small, red ants who, it turns out, do most of the pollinating.  But mason bees, paper wasps, yellow jackets, honey bees, bumble bees and just about every kind of fly will be all over the flowers or, at least, where the flowers ought to be.  The ants are attracted to a sticky sap that oozes from the base of the leaf petioles.  The wasps are particularly attracted to the very young fruits.  No clue why that is so. Just be careful if you decide to examine your luffas on a sunny, summer afternoon.

Once your vine finally begins to set fruit, you will see numerous flowers and fruits pretty much all at once.  With any luck, you will have at least 50 days left in your growing season for the fruits to mature before frost kills the vines.

Luffas smell.  Some don't mind the smell, but I find it off-putting.  It will get on your hands like tomato vine smell does. Fortunately, it washes off a lot easier.

Luffas are indeed vigorous growers.  Given the chance, they will climb just about any suitable surface and BLOT OUT THE SUN.

After the first killing frost, pick all the gourds on the vines, except the most recent, and take them inside to dry.  In my case, about half of what I harvested was actually ready to be made into sponges.

The gourds are ready when the skin has dried and darkened and the gourds are very lightweight for their size. If you shake the gourds, you should hear the seeds rattling inside. Mine took about four weeks in the dry, forced-air heat of my laundry room to dry out. 

It's a fairly straighforward process to remove the husk and rinse the sponge until the water runs clear.  It is somewhat less simple to remove the numerous seeds inside the gourd.  I got out what I could by firmly smacking the gourd on the inside of a 5-gallon bucket.  There are still lots of seeds in my sponges and they don't seem to hurt anything.

In order to save yourself a lot of tense waiting and potential heartache, I recommend the following:

1. Do not grow luffas unless you have at least 120 days of growing season.  That's 120 days between last average frost in the spring and the first average frost in the fall.  My zone 5b garden in central Nebraska barely meets those requirements.
2. Before sowing the seeds, soak them in water for 24 hours to help soften the seed coat.  Then, nick the seed coat with a pen knife before planting to help the seeds germinate.  This is something I did not do last year because I did not do my homework first.
3. Make sure the soil is warm enough before you plant.  You may want to mulch the soil to help keep the heat in.  I am going to try starting some of the seeds indoors on a heat mat before transplanting outside.  You never know.
4. Provide a suitable support.  The gourds are big and heavy.  Although I did not have any problems with the vines being too weak to support the weight of the gourds, I could see it becoming a problem with an especially large fruit.  You may need to support the fruit with an old nylon stocking or a mesh bag (like those the Cuties come in).
5. Sit back and let nature take its course.  I tried sweet talking the flowers. I tried hand pollinating the flowers. I tried pleading with and standing watch over my flowers.  The silly vine will make fruit when it's darn good and ready and there really isn't anything to be done to hurry the process along as near as I can tell.

All in all, I really did enjoy growing my luffas last year.  So much so that I'm going to try again this year.  The vines are beautiful, the flowers are lovely and as a pollinator attractor, I'm not sure it can be beat.  So sit back and enjoy the vines.

Oh, and grow some birdhouse gourds, too.  Much, much easier. Trust me.

My Oasis

Isn't it lovely?  This green oasis I've created in my back yard?  What was once as flat and featureless as a patch of prairie has become lush and green, and dare I say it, fecund?

It has.  I love it.  My husband has threatened to get a monkey and a parrot and pipe in jungle noises.

This is what used to be the east end of our clothesline.  We built an arbor in the fence along the south edge of the property and used the existing clothesline lines as a vertical growing surface.  Now, walking under the lines is rather like passing through a jungle landscape.  All temporary of course.  The gourds are annual vines and when the frost finally does them in, I'll be bringing in the gourds for drying and tearing down the vines.

The really great news this week is that I finally have baby luffa gourds! This is the first of what has now become 5 babies maturing slowly on the vine.  I'm now hopeful that if the weather holds out and stays warm long enough, I'll have luffa sponges to play with this winter.

In a normal year, I'd say I don't have much hope.  We usually get a killing frost near the end of September or at the latest, mid-October in my neck of the woods.  But I've read a few long-range weather forecasts that warn we could be experiencing warmer than usual temperatures into the end of October.  That would be great for the gardening season.  It would also be a little freaky.  Even though it almost BURNS to say this, hopefully, this winter will be more normal in the way of precipitation.  Another dry year would not be good regardless of how much I despise the snow.  It's not the snow's fault.  I just hate driving in that mess.

Just in case you're wondering, here are the little Tennessee spinner gourds.  They have gone batshit crazy and I have what could be dozens of the little fellas.  I see 8 or 9 just in this little photo alone.  But, I have a project in mind for them.  Last winter I found an artist online who dries and paints the gourds to make Christmas ornaments.  Hers are gorgeous!  I don't believe for a minute that mine will be as pretty as the two I bought from her, but I'm going to try it out for myself anyway.  I love nature crafts like that and this one has me inspired.  So look out family!  You might be getting gourds for Christmas.

On a related note, I discovered a stash of dried birdhouse gourds in my storage building the other day.  Looks like I'm having a gourdy winter!

The eggplants just keep on a-coming.  Fortunately, I discovered that my boss has a fondness for them.  So I unloaded shared my prolific harvest with him last week.  I have another friend at work who likes them as well and she'll take some off my hands.  I love to grow them and if I can feed some friends in the process, that makes it all the sweeter for me.




Last week I finally decided to try drying my extra (!) cherry tomatoes.  I cut them in half and put them in my handy-dandy food dehydrator and a few hours later, voila!  Tomaisins!  They are so tasty!  I almost can't wait for it to be February so I can get some out and put them on my pizza.  I have a feeling we'll wind up with lots of tomaisins this year. I don't know if I have to, but we put them in little snack bags and store them in the freezer.  It doesn't seem to change the texture or flavor.

Well, I'm on vacation for a couple weeks here.  We have family we haven't seen for a very long time coming in for a visit.  Really looking forward to it.