Gourds: When is a luffa ready to be harvested?

Hi Y'all,

I think this is the best forum for this question. This is my first year growing loofas & gourds. I had the exact same questions as belledonna, but for loofas as well. Do I just let them keep growing? Is there a good window of time in which I should remove them from the vine? I get concerned that the other loofas may need more energy and thus, perhaps it's time to remove the larger ones.

I'd like to dry and use as gifts, but I've no idea how I'll do this yet. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

I just let them grow and grow. If you're worried about some of them not getting any size I would suggest side-dressing them w/some compost.
Last year I picked a few too early and they were a bit mushy inside and never came into the "fibrous mode". I like to let them begin to turn brown before harvesting, however I have picked the big ones when still green.

Thanks, Shoe! A side dressing ~ I like that. I did add a nitrogen shock drink to them. But, perhaps the compost will be hardier. Thanks again :)

I'll add my two cents. Last year we had quite a few luffa plants and I let them go completely until the fruit was dry and brown. The skin was crinkly dry and the stem easily popped off. Then I soaked the whole thing in a bucket of water for about 15 seconds and the skin peeled right off, revealing the beautiful fibers beneath.

I am so glad to know this Dave and Shoe...I am SOOO proud of my louffas! Shoe...I've heard of a salad with "dressing on the side"...but side dressing a louffa" ?? Jo

Thanks, Dave! I knew you had grown these last year and was hoping for a tip or two. I'll follow your advice, but my one question is this. After you soaked and then peeled the skin, did you then have to let the luffa dry like a gourd? Or, had it already done that on the vine?

Thanks!

Morph, it dries on the vine. When the skin is brown and flaky, the inside will be dry. Luffas don't need the curing time that Lagenarias need.

Dave

That's good to know! I have been given a suggestion to make a nice soap and pour it into the Louffa holes, slice it and have a bath sponge ready to give as gifts. I'm going to try that. Jo

Yippee! Thanks Dave & Jo!!! Now, I'll have more patience waiting for the gourds to dry knowing that my luffas will be ready for gifts this year :)

I love your soap idea, Jo! Will you actually make it from scratch (rendered fat)? Maybe I can keep myself busy with that while the gourds dry.

Thanks again, Dave. I so appreciate knowing what's next in how to handle the luffas :)

Morph....my DD has an EASY soap recipe...maybe just melted soap...but be assured...I will not make it from scratch!! Easy or nothing....LOL Jo

Okay, now I'm a little worried. Our nights are near freezing and I'm worried about the luffas. Some are getting dark spots (from the cold I'm almost certain).

They are matured in size so I'm not worried about stunted growth. But, if I leave them on the stem to dry and if we keep getting these freezes, will that interfer with how they should dry correctly?

Should I bring them inside to dry?

Dave, did you leave yours on the vine through freezing temperatures?

I can't really help here... My luffas were long done by the freeze. :( I really don't know what to do in this case.

If it were me... I'd bring half of them indoors, and leave the other half outside. See which ones perform best so you'll know (and you can tell us!)

dave

That's exactly what my mom suggested last night :) She was visiting from Tennessee on her way to Cleveland. She's never grown these, but she thought that would be a good approach.

Thanks, Dave. I'll take both yours and my mom's advice & let everyone know the outcome :)

Dave & Morph....the harvesting of my louffa was forced on me...I went out one evening and saw that all the vines were totally stripped bare...grasshoppers I would guess...so I decided to bring 3 of them in...and get the rest in the next morning.

Here is how 4 of them looked the next morning!!! I have peeled the outter coat off of the ones that were bitten, they are drying fine. I think Javalinas got them. Jo

Wow, that's a great picture, Jo! Thanks for sharing. I remember you talking about your gourds getting attacked by nasty little creatures, yes? I didn't even think about your luffas at the time.

Those are nasty attacks, but it looks like they will indeed be okay. Mine are about that size. I brought some in today and left some outside still. I'm trying to determine if leaving them in the garage would be better or if letting them dry inside where it's warmer might hasten the process. So much to learn & try :)

Here's a photo summary of my first dried & peeled luffa ~ hooray! I'm stumped for the moment, though. There are still seeds inside of my luffa. I was hoping to pour melted soap into the luffa, let it dry and then cut into slices.

Can I somehow remove the seeds without slicing the luffa? I really think the results would be better if I poured the melted soap into a whole luffa and then cut slices AFTER it dried inside the fibers. Any ideas?

NICE JOB!! You did good! Yeehawww!

As for the seeds still inside...let the luffa get good and dry (inside and out) and the seeds will loosen up and can then be shaked out. It helps to bang the sponge on something (steps, table, fence post, whatever) to encourage the seeds to loosen up and fall out.

As for the soap, I imagine if you pour soap inside the sponge it will leak out the sides. Maybe you could submerge the whole sponge in a long tube of the soap tho so it soaks in it that way.

** blushing **

Thanks for the great ideas, Shoe! Guess I'll have to be judicious in choosing those places upon which I'll hit the luffa :) Maybe I'll wait until I'm frustrated enough and use it for some anger management ~ lol...
Yes, I am concerned about the soap leaking out of the sides. I've several ideas I've been noodling upon and I'll now try your idea, too! Hopefully, several more luffas will dry with success and I'll be able to test different methods.

Many thanks again for the insight!

Hmmm..been thinking about your idea. (Sure sounds easier than slicing them up.) Maybe a piece of 4 inch (or even 6 inch) pvc pipe blocked at one end, and cut to length would make a great tube to put the sponge/soap in, eh? And to make it easier to get out when the soap is dried...before inserting the sponge and soap, curl up a thin piece of "cereal board" (don't mean cardboard, but that stuff like cereal boxes are made of) and use it as a liner. Then when the soap is dry you pull the liner out of the tube and it won't mess up the edges of the soap (cuz it would be stuck to the pvc tube). Think it would work, Morph?

Yes, yes, yes I do!!! GREAT and I mean GREAT idea! I had been thinking A LOT about a tube structure. But, since I couldn't get metal tubing out my mind, the PVC didn't even hit the radar screen! The bonus part is that I have extra PVC tubing from when I made my seedling cart out of it last Spring :)

I really like this approach in theory because I had seen "luffa" made soap recently at a fair. The soap had seaped through like you had described and it made it a little less appealing in appearance only.

You'd better let me know what kind of soap you & your family like cuz if it works, some of it is sure to be on its way to you!

Hah!...sounds to me like you are on a roll then! Think maybe you should start a "Rare Soap Store"??? You could sell it by the pound, by the site, or by the foot!

Keep us posted on this, okay?

LOL ~ will do and thanks again for your suggestions!

Do you know that you can eat luffas while they are under 6", they are mighty tasty. I knew mine wouldn't get big enough to make the sponges....so I ate them.

hello all, I'm new to Dave's and also new to growing "Loffa" and as with horshoe I'm in Zone 7a in Hope Mills North Carolina. I was given a Loffa last year in the green stage. I put it in a closet to dry and to be honest forgot about it. In the early spring I discovered it and cut it open for seeds. Not knowing what I was doing, I couldn't peel it, but I did get a few seeds out of it. I'm sure there were many more that I didn't knock loose. Of course in my ignorance I threw away the rest of the luffa. I preplanted the few seeds I had in pots in my green house and about 5 or 6 propagated nicely. After planting them by a trellis they grew to cover not only the trellis, but a 6' chain link fence, and bloomed profusly until just about a few weeks ago. I have harvested 12 very large (16" to 18") gourds. Last nights low temperture started to discolor them so I harvested them and placed them in a brown cardboard box and put them in a closet to see if they will dry properly. I under stand that if they dry properly you can cut off the ends and shake the seed out then soak them and peel them. I have been told that they should produce a few hundred seeds each. Any advice you may have would be welcome. Bob

Welcome Bob!!! Don't have the answers to your questions, but wanted to welcome ya! Fellow NC here too :-)

Donna

Howdy Bob...Welcome to the site! (Aren't you around Fayetteville area? Just curious.)
As for drying your luffa I'd recommend you let them dry where there is air around them, not in a box. They may rot in there.
Let them get good and dry and the blossom end will automatically pop open. Then you can shake the seeds out really easily. Also if they are good and dry you won't need to soak them first to get the skin off...it'll be really brittle and just break off.
Enjoy your crop! You'll get lots of seeds for next year!

Welcome, Bob! I didn't know that, Shoe, that you could just break off the brittle pieces ~ good to know :)

I was performing an experiment, here, Bob in Zone 5a. I had many mature gourds close to our freeze date. I wasn't sure whether or not to leave them on the vine to dry or to bring them inside. I brought some in and left the rest of them outside. Well, the ones outside got wet from rain & freezing. They rotted :( But, the ones inside have all dried very nicely! I put them right above my heat vents for air circulation & quicker drying time since I wanted to have them ready by Christmas of this year.

If you look higher in the thread here, I took some pictures of the way I removed the skin from my loofas by soaking them AFTER they were completely dry. After I removed the skin, I let them dry again then used Shoe's advice and hit them really hard to shake loose the seeds. Then, I soaked one more time in water with bleach to get a nice white/light color since these are going to be gifts. Then, I let them dry again. I put them in a sunny window and they dry in a day or two. Also, I used my blow dryer to help dry them faster :)

Now, the interesting part is what I was going to do next. I thought I could go buy my family's favorite soap bars at the store, melt them, and just pour into the loofas. No dice! You can't just melt down soaps from the store like Dove, Irish Spring or whatever. Those soaps have so many chemicals in them that it turned out to be a nightmare!

So, now I'm learning how to make good old fashioned homemade soap. I never realized the process and the secrets involved with that. That deserves its own thread :)

First thank you for the welcome, Belledonna, Horseshoe and Morph, Yes I'm near Fayetteville, the small town of Hope Mills. I want to thank you for all the info on curing my Loffa. I will post my success or failure as I go along. Also because of the warm welcome I am going to subscribe to Dave's Garden. In fact I don't even know how I am posting here without being a member, but I won't kick a gift horse in the head. Looking forward to enjoying reading the posts in the forums and sharing what little expertise I have. Bob

I cleaned up 4 luffa last night and soaked them in clorox. They still have some dark spots. Should I keep soaking them? I have LOTS of seeds. I hope to be over run with luffa next year! :-)


Donna

Donna, did you remove the seeds before you soaked in Clorox? I did just to be careful I didn't kill them. Of course, to get the seeds out, I had to dry between the first peeling and the bleaching step. I, too, had some dark spots left. They were small enough that I thought I would do one of two things. First, I might snip them out with scissors. Or, since I'll be slicing mine with soap in them (hopefully), I may just slice on either side of the dark spots and pitch the bad part. I did soak my last ones for about two hours. Much longer than the first one I soaked. Also, I put a heavy jar on them to keep them submerged for the soaking time. Almost all the spots were removed. Good luck!

Cool Idea! Yes I removed the seeds first :-) At least I thought I did, but after soaking it more came out. I just tossed them out. I have enough luffa seeds to plant an acre of them now! lol

I will try the jar though! Thanks!

Donna

hello once again. Just thought I would update the status of the Luffa that I harvested last month. They still have, I believe, a long way to go in the drying process. A few days ago as I was cleaning the dead vines off the trellis and fence, I came across what appeared to be a mature luffa still on the vine. It was about 8 inches long and quite thick and almost dry. The stem and skin were almost brown. Tonight I peeled it very easily and knocked some of the seed out, but most are still in the sponge. Are the luffa suposed to be hollow with sort of tunneling inside it containing the seeds? I just placed it by a heater vent to let it dry some more and hopefully I will be able to knock the seeds out. Hope I'm doing everything right so far. Bob

Sounds like you are doing well, Bob. And yes, the luffa has tunnels inside, that is normal.
How are the ones you picked earlier and put in a box? They not drying out yet?

Thanks Horseshoe, I stood the ones in the box up and leaning so they won't rot. They seem to be doing well, however I have placed one by a heater vent to try and dry it out quickly. Of course the heat went off last night at 1 am and just came back on at 12:30 pm. Nothing but ice around here now, but it is starting to clear off. As far as the Luffa on the vent goes, I will post how it comes out. Now if all goes well I will find a recipe for scented soap and soak them in it. Later Bob

hello i'm new here in zone 6very interesting about the luffas my ?weplanted seeds some years back the luffas started out but soon died at about 2 in.maybe an insect ?we are puzzled because they are still coming up each year,doing the same as before I thought they had to be planted each year could anyone enlighten us on this would appreciate any&all info
REDTHUMB

A hearty welcome to DG, Redthumb! Come on in and sit a spell!

Unless you planted gazillion seeds they shouldn't be coming back up, especially if they have been dying back at 2" of height. I really don't think luffa seed will lay in your zone 6 soil over winter and still come up. Are you sure they are luffas that are coming up?

That's what I would wonder, too, Shoe. I don't think I took any photos of my luffa seedlings last year. Wish I had. I searched the internet just quickly to see if I could find a seedling picture. Didn't find one.

Seedlings here:

http://davesgarden.com/j/si/12438/

Dave

Thx, Dave :)

Dave, did you harvest any this year? Were these planted in Texas?