Luffa cylindrica or sponge gourd in the vegetable garden.
Grow your own natural sponges!
Bet you didn’t know your shower scrubber grows like a cucumber! That’s right, those spongy loofahs (aka luffas) are the dried fruit of a climbing vine. And not only do they make fabulous eco-friendly scrubbers, but the young fruits are also a tasty treat in stir-fries and curries! With a sunny spot and something to climb, you can grow your own loofah sponges right at home. They’re quirky, useful, and surprisingly easy to cultivate.
About Loofahs
Firstly, is it loofah or luffa? It’s both, so whichever you prefer is fine. Two species are used: Luffa cylindrica syn. L. aegyptiaca and Luffa acutangula. Both species are vigorous climbing annual vines. It is necessary to provide something for them to climb, and vines can achieve 30 feet in length.
Luffas are prized for their inner fibrous structure that, when dried, makes an excellent shower scrubber. Many cheap plastic scrubbers are based on the interwoven mesh form of a natural luffa sponge. Their natural fibers are, of course, plastic-free, and they won’t rust like a stainless steel scrubber.
Whether in the kitchen, bathroom, or out in the garage to clean up stubborn grit, loofah sponges are a great and natural way to clean pans, scrub hard-to-reach bits in the shower (mount it on a stick), or wash dirt off your gardening tools.
Besides being great for exfoliating and cleaning pans, they’re also eaten like squash when harvested as small, immature fruits. Young luffa fruit is tasty and commonly used in Southeast Asian and Indian cuisine.
Luffas are easy to grow and can be treated like a cucumber or melon. They are best grown vertically on a trellis where the long vines will be kept up and out of the way, and you’ll get to watch the fruits grow and harvest them at the appropriate size. Mature fruits look like overgrown cucumbers but larger, like a jumbo zucchini, and can reach 2 feet long and 4 to 5 inches in diameter.
Types
The two common species are suitable for growing, whether eating or for sponges. The difference mostly involves the appearance of the fruit. Some people find the texture of L. cylindrica or smooth loofah to be more suited for use on skin than other loofahs.
- L. cylindrica (shown above) is smoother. If growing loofas for producing sponges, the smooth luffa is much easier to peel.
- L. acutangula (shown below) has more of a ridge-like appearance. It’s more often used for cooking in Asian cuisine, especially stews and curries.
Purchase seeds from any reputable vendor or get them at a seed swap.
Harvesting
Loofah plants can be harvested immature for eating or fully mature for creating loofah sponges.
Pick loofah fruits when they are less than 7 inches long for eating. They can be eaten raw or cooked up like a summer squash. Pick mature loofahs when they’ve turned brown, and the seeds rattle when shaken.
To create a loofah sponge:
- Harvest the fruits when they are mature, the skin has turned a bit wrinkly and brown, and the seeds rattle inside. If you are running up against the frosts, you can pick any firm and hard loofahs with skins that have started to toughen up.
- Roll, squeeze, or otherwise apply pressure to the outside of the loofah, loosening the skin (if your loofah is brown and hard, wack it on something solid like a bench a few times).
- At the flower end opposite the stem, there will be a small circle of skin that can be twisted off like a top. Pop it off.
- Shake out the seeds. If the loofah wasn’t quite dry, you may have to wash them out and rinse off any soft material.
- Lay the sponges out to dry after cutting the loofahs into smaller pieces if desired.
Cooking Notes
Andy Wilcox
