Luffa Seeds (growing, vines, cucumber, frost)

[ylisa7]

Has anyone ever planted these? My stepdaughter is into making her own cleaning and beauty products and she wants me to grow this in my garden.

These are the plants that produce Loofah sponges. Anyway how many gourds or sponges can you expect from 1 plant?

Here is a link for those interested:
Luffa Seeds

[Cunucu Beach]

Luffas are easy to grow on a trellis. I used to grow luffas when I lived in California and I had so many I would take them to work and give them away. I tried it here in Nebraska, starting them in the ground about April 15. It took them a few weeks to really take off but once it had warmed up they grew like crazy. I had literally dozens of large, still green luffas on the vines when the first frost came, so they didn't get the chance to mature properly. Found out the hard way that luffas require a growing season of about 6-7 months and shorter than that just won't work.

[mossomo]

That's an idea. I didn't realize Luffa's were plants. Far out.

[ylisa7]

Cunucu Beach- Thanks for the info. I didn't realize they needed such a long growing season.

Originally Posted by mossomo

That's an idea. I didn't realize Luffa's were plants. Far out.

Grow some for me I won't be able to try them out in TN.

[shadowwalker]

You can eat them also. I used to pick the ones about 7 inches long and eat them like a cucumber or fry them like squash. The ones we had in TN got about 20 feet long and had many pods on them.