Luffa: The Washing Sponge that Inundates Orlando

If you want to grow, Watch out!

A young luffa vine with a luffa, excited to smother neighboring fruit trees later that summer.

I mean it! I gave Luffa seeds to my Mom’s friend when she visited our Central Florida residence a couple years ago. About 5 months later I heard back that she had produced so many Luffa in Gainesville that she started a small soap business and began selling the combo.

Okay, luffa is one of those fun crops that add another dimension to your garden. It’s a fun trivia fact to tell people that those natural cucumber-looking scrub pads are luffa sponges. They aren’t plucked from the sea, they actually come off of plants that climb over everything during the oppressive heat in Florida summers. These make good gifts. I recommend that you wait until the fruit has turned completely brown before you pick it, this gives the fruit time to produce all its fibers that you’ll want in your home grown sponges. Be careful not to wait too long, otherwise the humidity in Orlando can easily inundate your dark sponges with mold, deteriorating it’s strength, and bleach-tan color. I’d say, pick it and leave it well spaced, hanging and under cover weather outside with the hot sun beating the water out of it or try inside until the luffas are nice and dry. Peeling will help water evaporate.

You can eat luffa, but it’s like many of your other tropical substitutes to things, in my experience most people have difficulty driving away from the vegetables they grew up on. If you want to eat luffa, don’t wait for the fibers to strengthen! Harvest when they are less than 6 inches long (1). They taste like Zucchini, just easier to grow.

They will climb!! They’ll start to cover a 20ft tree after a couple months if you let them. I’d say let them climb for their own health, but protect your other plants as well.

Planting Luffa

To plant luffa, identify or create a space that is about 50 square feet per plant. Ideally this space has a trellis but you can also just allow them to run on the ground. Why not plant them beside a small tree that you don't like too much? Plant two seeds in each hole, about an inch and half deep. Make sure the Luffa plants get 6+ hours of sun, after that they'll climb rapidly to find more. This plant's seasonal limiting factor is going to be cold weather. Immediately coming out of winter weather like the second to last week of February would be a great time to plant. The plants will likely continue to produce and grow quickly until cold weather in winter. So, you have spring, summer and fall to grow them. I bet they could be grown in Winter too, but I recommend using them as a summer crop.

Sam’s Pointers

• The easiest vegetable that I know for Orlando! LOVE HEAT!

• Big climbers!! Let them grow! Plant them away from your fruiting and

  flowering trees.

• People that tour your garden usually are amazed that you can grow sponges they’ve seen in stores. Albeit, luffa sponges don’t hold soap as well 😕.

Citations

1. https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/vegetables/luffa/#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20interested%20in,away%20from%20the%20fibers%20within.