2014–2016 Luffa • Luffah • Loofah Growing Adventure

[applestar]

On the INSIDE/VG Garden side of the fence, there are 4 big but still very green fruits and 1 biggest, almost completely yellowed fruit that I'm hoping will yield mature, viable seeds.

[applestar]

One of the two my neighbor picked up and left by the front porch -- I've had it hanging in the house to finish ripening and decided today might be the day. Test rip in the side looked good, so I dug in, and the skin slipped right off -- just like they said.



Since this was only the one, I opted to wash by hand -- and after changes of about 5 buckets of water, I said enough.



...lots of seeds came out -- ones in the black bowl sank and all the others floated. Saving them separately in case of germination quality. The cleaned sponge is drying in the sun.....

[applestar]

[Taiji]

I've seen those sponge like things in the health stores for years, but never really knew what they were for. Looks like fun!

[pepperhead212]

Looks great apple! I tried growing this years ago - the Chinese Okra vatiety - but it got SVBs. I simply can't grow any squash here, unless it is a moschata variety.

[applestar]

Hm I'm surprised that the Chinese Okra - angled loofah -- got SVB's. Maybe they are more tender (and possibly better for eating?) than the smooth species? Good to know in case I want to try growing the angled varieties in the future.

I wish I had a longer stretch of fence in a sunny area that isn't already occupied (my apple/pear/persimmon espaliers have the VIP fenceline) -- I might have to build one in the middle of the front lawn

I examined the seeds this morning, and it looks like germination -- as in are they mature enough to germinate -- isn't the issue here. MANY of the floaters seem to have been in the process of germinating ...maybe the gasses produced in those initial stages make them float? This appears to have happened mostly to the intermediate grey seeds that you might think are mature enough to save. There were some that had germinated among the sunken seeds, too. But the black seeds, which you would assume ARE mature, seem to have not tried to germinate. Maybe their seed coat has hardened sufficiently to resist soaking from the relatively short dip they had yesterday.



I decided to make what would be the typical common gardening sense•call to save only the black and nearly black seeds. I've sorted out all the lighter colored seeds -- rest of the dark greys and most likely immature light greys and am currently "toasting" them in a 160°F dehydrator for eating.



...I still have this much black seeds for saving and I'm hoping for more fully matured seeds from that big yellowing fruit that is still on the vine.

[applestar]

As an aside -- I was thinking that I readily recognize signs of germinating in these seeds because I have been pre-germinating cucurbit seeds for planting in the spring. THEN, I'm examining them twice a day for signs OF germinating. Ha.

[applestar]

[ButterflyLady29]

Yes, they look like they got hit with an herbicide. It's a shame. But those are some beautiful and healthy looking vines.

My mom tried them for several years running and only once produced a usable "sponge". We just don't have a long enough growing season to get much out of them except a wall of lush growth. She never started hers inside because we had such little room for babying plants then.

Hopefully your cold temps will be delayed a few more weeks so you can get a few more mature fruits.

[applestar]

Thanks! I'm excited for this year's possible harvest. Definitely one has yellowed and is ready for sponge harvest, but I'm going to count on that one for seeds so I'll wait until the last minute. Pretty sure there is at least one or two more that is about same stage as the last one that yielded a sponge.

At this point, I have to watch the weather and make sure to cut and bring the big ones in in so they won't be frost damaged and can be sured a little longer in the house. At least half dozen zucchini harvest sized ones for eating from vines climbing the VG trellis -- I'll have to be sure to harvest them in time, too.

[applestar]

Update:


...harvested the three biggest ones. You can see the vines for the ones that were on the exposed side of the fence (protected with the cut off jammy legs) had completely browned. One feels light-ish, the other is still a bit heavy. The yellowed one feels light, so I think that one is definitely ready.

4 more big ones plus a good half dozen or so that are eating size are still on the vines. (I should go check the temperature forecast again....)

[applestar]

I'm not sure if I mentioned earlier -- I've been referencing luffa.info. He's definitely spot-on about there being a window between green and dried fruits when it's easy to peel/slip off the skin.

Durgan had posted on helpfulgardener forum years ago.
Subject: Growing Luffah and making sponges. Zone 5
The links durgan had given us had become broken somehow, but I discovered the blog is still up.
https://www.durgan.org/2010/November%202 ... /index.htm

I've been hanging mine up in the house and testing by hefting and squeezing - the first one turned into what felt like a water balloon. I now know that was a wrong sign and indication that it wasn't mature enough. The second one became sort of crackly as the skin toughened, semi-dried and pulled away from the fibers inside.

Though yellowed, I was a bit disappointed to realize AFTER cutting it off that its stem was a lot healthier than I had originally thought -- only one direction of the vine that the stem was on was dried out -- you can sort of see in the bucket photo. I will wait until the fruit stems blacken and dry out like I did with the one I successfully harvested a sponge from.

If the fruits don't mature to "easily peel off" stage, I'll use the boiling method to get at the softer semi-immature sponges.

[applestar]

In addition to 4-6" smaller ones that are not pictured, I harvested the top four -- about size of large zucchini -- yesterday before the freeze for eating... and left the 5 largest remaining fruits on the vines. Two are protected with cut off jammy pant-legs, and three were left to the elements, but this area is a bit more protected and it seemed like the last night's frost/freeze didnt get to them when I checked on them today.



We had some of the smallest fruits -- peeled -- in a pasta sauce for lunch. I added two finger thick tiny ones unpeeled -- there was a bit of strong flavor with those that reminded me of eggplant.

[imafan26]

Looks good. Loofah is called CeeGwa or Chinese Okra. It is grown here mostly for eating and not making sponges. There is a ribbed and a smooth variety. I usually have access to the ribbed variety. The plants are very productive but it is hard to find takers for the fruit. It is usually used in soups and like Okra it has a bit of sliminess and a slight bitterness that can be off putting.

[applestar]

Thanks @imafan -- it really sounds like the angled•ribbed ones are more of the eating kind? I should try growing those, too. Do the ribbed ones NOT make good sponges?

If mine yields good enough sponges, I'm going to have fun experimenting with how to use them this winter. I have a couple of REALLY long, hard sponges that DH was gifted by visitors from Brazil. (I tried growing seeds that were still in them, but they didn't germinate). It will be interesting to compare them with my sponges which will likely be softer from being slightly immature. That first one I cleaned look tiny and wimpy next to the ones from Brazil.


Harvested 4 out of the 5 remaining loofah -- the vines for the ones on the fence had shriveled and the fruit stems were starting to darken. (The vine for the one hanging from the overhead VG trellis was still green so I left it for now.)



...these have joined the three FOUR others hanging in the house to finish ripening. I have one that is ready to peel and wash, too. The curved one from next to the birdhouse already feels a bit light and making crackly noises that seem to indicate the skin separating from the sponge when pressed from the outside, but I'll wait until the skin yellows -- the sponge inside seem to shrink away from the skin then.

[applestar]

...thinking about this, it seems to stand to reason that, in addition to flavor, eating varieties would be selected for NOT developing fibrous sponge for a long time, thus allowing the fruits to keep eating quality for an extended time. Whereas, to grow for sponges, it would be desirable, especially in my northern climate, that they hurry up and develop the fibers into hard/inedible sponges....

[applestar]

Cleaned another one. This is the one that had started to yellow outside, then was hung to finish inside, so it was quite a bit yellowed, and when I ripped a small hole and peeked, the sponge had shrunken as much as 1/4" away inside the skin.

But it had some flesh in the neck part that had not broken down and had become browned --MAJOR pain to work out of the sponge, and I had to rip it a bit. Darker than the last one for sure, which measured 15 inches after drying. This one is still wet and is 14 inches long measured from the clothespin. More sinker seeds than floaters this time, but NONE was completely black -- what's that about?



...I don't know if it will be good for anything, but I saved the first and 2nd rinse water. IF I get around to it, I'm going to simmer them to pasteurize, and try making some relatively harmless/easy body products with them like shampoo and conditioner or add to handsoap, etc.

...otherwise, I'll just water some container plants with them. Last time, I watered the peppers and figs that were fruiting.

[applestar]

Luffah #3 -- this one was still mostly green, but I accidentally cracked the skin while kneading it, then it started to leak (still too juicy inside), then I was forced to process it because some ants that managed to find their way in to escape from the last couple of morning's freeze found it this morning.

Since the rind was still pretty green and juicy, I gave the pieces -- which generally peeled off, though not quite releasing as easily as I've gotten used to -- to the worms in the vermicompost bin. They tend to like squash, so maybe they will like luffah as well.

You can see the neck was not well developed -- very soft fibers, and there were only a small amount of sinker seeds:

[applestar]

So, Thnaksgiving, etc. schtuff kept me from getting around to processing the next two luffah until they were externally dried out. Then they started to bloom with spots of white mold, forcing me to wipe them down with rubbing alcohol and tossing them in the garage...

...I FINALLY got the chance to work on them today and they were in sorry state -- I thought they were completely ruined. But after two soaking in Oxy-clean, changing the solution once, they came out OK. whew!

[applestar]

After dealing with the condition of the two yesterday, I decided to process 4 more luffah today. One was starting to spoil at the neck but the lower portion was still very green and hard (this was the last one harvested) -- the interior sponge had not started to shrink away and skin had not started crackle when pressed -- and the skin would not peel off like the others. I decided this one needed to be boiled. I did oxyclean them all but only one soaking was needed.


...middle two are the ones from yesterday.

[applestar]

Cleaned the last of the big luffah today.



Now, I just have two medium and one medium-small green ones left. None are as well developed and probably only have smallish usable fibrous sponge in the lower half of the fruits. But I'm hoping they will be softer and perhaps even suitable for face use.