An Ode to Luffa

Luffa? Loofah? Loofa? However you spell it, this was my favorite plant to grow this spring and summer season, and now that we're well into fall and I've been harvesting these gourds en masse, I have some tips to share for anyone who may be thinking about growing their own next year.      

   

Native to tropical Asia, I found that luffa really loves the North Florida climate-- it wants heat, sun, and humidity, and it gets plenty of it here. I started three plants from seed in pots in March of this year, all three sprouted, and I gifted one to my brother (whose plant is taking over their backyard fence and vigorously producing, too) and I planted two in my own garden. I quickly realized how much space these plants take up as they started to take over my yard and garden beds, so I ended up pulling out one of the luffa who was overcrowding one of the beds and put up a cattle panel trellis to support the other. This eventually expanded into two cattle panel trellises, all just to support one plant. Big tip for anyone looking to grow luffa: you need vertical space. It wants to climb!

The main reason we decided to grow luffa was to be able to make sponges (like those pictured above), but we also learned that you can eat the fruits when they're still small. We gave it a try in a stir fry and I thought it was a great substitute for zucchini. One perk of luffa: while my zucchini were completely decimated by pickle worms later in the season, they never touched the luffa.

I made a full YouTube video with more information about growing luffa and how to harvest them; you can find that video here. I hope it's helpful! Luffa really has been such a rewarding plant for us to grow this year-- it's made for a nice shady spot in the garden, it's looked lush all season, it produces nonstop with minimal effort, and the pollinators love it. This will definitely be a staple plant for us each year!