develop loufah sponge is quite an dangerous undertaking . It ’s not for the deliquium of heart , or for the nurseryman who needs everything to stay put in its lane . With that in mind , it ’s easy to rise luffas and you could have all the sponges you ever wanted in just a individual gardening time of year .
Gary’s Luffas and Our Accidental Angle Gourds
you may grow luffas almost anywhere . Even in stinky South Florida Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin .
Gary’s Runaway Luffas
A duo of 10 agomy previous friend Garystayed with my grandparents for a period of time . Gary was a free spirit – especially when it come to horticulture , so he planted luffas along their back fence .
Probably without asking .
This being South Florida , they had a long season to ladder and run and bleed . ( If you have n’t arise luffas before , you might be take aback by the way their growth compares to kudzu ! )
I recall vines on the fencing , up the edge of trees , stray along the ground and invading the no - man’s - ground strip into the neighbour ’s G . Overall , the social rank profusion of growth was too much for my grandparent . I ’m pretty indisputable they had him take down the vines after they ’d covered a few hundred foot of their yard . Afterwards , I call back Gary drying piles of light-green , yellow and browned loufah sponge fruits on improvise racks .
There were enough luffa sponges grown in that backyard to givethe Tarpon Springs sponge diversa go for their money .
Photo credit : VisitStPeteClearwater.com/Jacob Pierce
Photo credit: VisitStPeteClearwater.com/Jacob Pierce
The Accidental Angle Gourds
year subsequently I got some luffa germ of my own from somewhere and I planted some in the North Florida Food Forest . They fruited , however , they were n’t smooth and rounded .
Instead , they face like green Hindenburg Zeppelins with penetrating ridges .
produce luffa become you sponges . raise angle calabash incur you Zeppelins !
Growing luffa gets you sponges. Growing angle gourd gets you Zeppelins!
And they were almost impossible to peel .
I had inadvertently planted the Angle Gourd , AKALuffa acutangula .
The youthful fruit were quite good to exhaust when cooked , but the fledged fruit were n’t any secure for sponges , which is why we had plant them in the first place ! Stripping the skins from the systema skeletale was almost impossible , unlike the received sponge motley .
At least we got some good ado - fries .
Luffa in the Wild
At the beautiful beach of La Sagesse in Grenada , there was a bombastic Tropical Almond tree by the resort . Every showery season that tree was covered with luffa vine . We also find a wild patch of them down by the river on a farm we lease in St. David ’s .
One day we made the mistake of ready and eating these savage luffa . you may take about that unfortunate escapade here .
We had toxic squash racquets syndrome before it was coolheaded .
That soured us on loofah for a while . At least as a veg .
A while that cover to this day . Nothing say “ delicious stir - fry ” like chills , vomiting and profound enteral distress .
Luffa seems to do pretty well in the wild . We saw some growing behind a Chinese eating house of late , rise an oak tree tree diagram . They had been deliberately plant , but were growing in pugnacious condition . We ’ve also had them ego - ejaculate off a porch where we were cleaning sponges . Our friend Elizabeth had them ego - seed as well . I doubt they would continue doing so for multiple years in a temperate clime , but it ’s potential . They definitely can maintain a wild population in the tropical zone , as we witness in the Caribbean .
Luffa in Our Gardens
Though our culinary romance with theLuffagenus ended in teardrop , it ’s use as a natural sponge still make water it deserving cultivating in our garden . Last twelvemonth , after buying some homemade soap at a Fannie Farmer ’s market with slices of luffa embedded in each bar , I was reminded what a nice scrubbing implement a loofah skeletal system can be .
This springtime I plantedLuffa aegyptiaca – the parazoan type , not the Zeppelin type – on one of the self-coloured cattle panel trellis we built .
It share the trellis with Jamaican yellow yams and velvet beans .
It struggled with their vigorous vines in a three style death lucifer for some time before striking out in multiple tentacles across the herb garden , over the Blessed Mother , across the chaste tree , through the invading carpet of sensible plant , and onto the concrete patio , where it has been place long luffa fruit like loiter grey - gullible Trichechus manatus on a layer ofMimosa pudica .
Its growth has been so vigorous that I have been tempted to flog it all back to the treillage with my machete ; however , it barely made any fruitsonthe treillage . It instead produced them elsewhere , on its most invading vines , flowering copiously and setting yield at its extremities .
All there is to do now is wait for the cold to knock them back .
This twelvemonth ’s luffa vines should ply us with sponges for the next mates of age , with enough for the sink , the exhibitor and some special to give away .
When my mother - in - law visit recently she was admire a luffa parazoan we had just harvested and make clean . She had always retrieve they had come from the ocean . They surely take nigh when we saw them along the beach at La Sagesse . But no , that poriferan did n’t amount from theactualocean . alternatively it came from the thick ocean of vines lap over our garden like a cryptical unripened tempest surge .
Next twelvemonth I might just have to embed them further out . Perhaps growing luffas along fences and trees , like Gary did . There is something fear - inspiring about a industrial plant that can arise and take over so extravagantly in a single season . If we get as many sponges as I intend we will , I might wait two years before I imbed them again . Or three . Though I ’ll probably just plant them again in the food woodland , since they ’re really fun to watch grow .
When the fall frosts arrive and the harvests are done , I ’ll be certain to share how many sponges we got . Until then , here ’s a spry TV on how we process luffa .
Growing Luffas in Your Own Garden
arise luffas is a ton of fun – I highly commend it . Just be quick for them to invade and conquer everything their tendrils can grasp .
Here ’s how to grow them .
Getting Luffa Seeds
We have see Luffa seed for cut-rate sale at multiple rarified seed shop . Baker Creek usually has them , as doesmy girl Daisy in her Etsy depot .
Planting
Plant seed in give after all danger of hoarfrost . Make trusted you are growing luffas near a strong treillage and give them lots of room . Having them press with yam and velvet beans is not advocate . One vine can run for twenty feet or more , so give them lots of space . Moderately fertile ground is estimable , but they are n’t picky .
Fruiting and Harvest
Luffas make male flush first , stick to by distaff efflorescence . Just wait – it demand luffas a prospicient sentence to really get give rise . Ours were in the ground for a few month before making their first three or four fruit . They then hesitate in fruiting , invaded the herbaceous plant garden , and go on to make a whole second beat of fruit along these wandering vines , produce many , many more .
When luffas are brown , they are ready to reap . Let them dry until the skin are crispy – either on the vine or off it – and then crush off the skin . The inside is fill with seed , but one end of the fruit is gentle to break off to eject them . Shake out the ejaculate and make unnecessary them for next year . You ’ll get enough seed in one yield to grow an acre of luffas !
you’re able to then issue your sponge into convenient “ round , ” or just use it full . The dry loufah sponge skeletons keep forever .
Eating Luffas
Young fruit can be corrode cook when they are about the size of it of a cucumber , but if you wait too long they ’ll get very fibrous and are uneatable . If fruits taste bitter , do not eat them . That is a sign of cucurbitacin , a grave toxin . Young ( non - acid ! ) fruits are delicious when stir - fry . Luffa soaks up the smack of whatever you misrepresent it in , and is very popular in Southeast Asian cooking .
SPUDOMETER RATING:
3 out of 5 Spuds
Name : Luffa / LoofahLatin Name : Luffa aegyptiacaType : Vigorous annual vineNitrogen Fixer : NoMedicinal : UnknownCold - hardy : NoExposure : Full sunPart Used : Fruit ( immature , as vegetable ) ; Mature ( as sponges)Propagation : SeedsTaste : Like summer squash ( must be cooked)Storability : Indefinite as sponges . in all probability a workweek as a unripened vegetableEase of turn : EasyNutrition : ripe source of vitamin A and FolateRecognizability : ModerateAvailability : Moderate
