http://aliyneca.notlong.com 30 Oct 2005 Loofah Plant The first gourd was found 6 Sep 2005. This took three months to form. I can only see one. Compare the pictures to see the growth in 13 days. There are many flowers, but I cannot see any fruit. Vegetation is very thick so a small fruit might be hidden someplace. I look every day. It is doubtful if the time left before frost that any fruit will mature, but I can hope. Several years ago I saw this plant growing at Niagara Falls Agriculture Gardens. It was amazing in that it covered a trellis-like sunhouse. This year I finally grew one. Light watering of the seedling is required. I lost several seedlings due to over watering. The seedlings were not forgiving. They simple wilted and died quickly. These pictures were taken today (12 Aug 20050 from the side of one of my sheds. The plant is about 6 feet deep. I cannot get in behind to take a photo, because it is too close to the boundary fence for camera action. The first indications of a flower shoot appeared today. I think it is male (clusters), the female is singular. Pictures of the plant will be updated reqularly as the plant progresses. URL to information about the plant Durgan
Wow that's very cool! Where did you get your seeds? I've been looking for seeds for them for a while but haven't been able to source any.
Seeds came from some internet site,googled and got. Incidentially there are real flowers on the plant as of yesterday. Pictures will be posted later today. Durgan
25 Aug 2005 two pictures of the flower taken this morning 25 Aug 2005. I think the cluster is the males flower. Still no sign of the fruiting body. http://aliyneca.notlong.com 30 Oct 2005 Loofah Plant Durgan
6 Sep 2005. I have added new pictures to the original post depicting the vegetation and one fruiting body. It has been just over three months for the first gourd to form. I can only see one with all that vegetation. I expect frost to bring the plant to a halt before the gourd gets to any reasonable size. Anyway I will wait and see. Durgan.
18 September 2005. Today I started to pull the vine from the neighbors yard and found a large luffah fruit body so I left it in place. The fruit is almost impossible to see it is so well comflaged by foliage. The fruit is about 9 inches in length. Here is the URL to pictures of the plant and fruit. http://aliyneca.notlong.com 30 Oct 2005 Loofah Plant I have added the URL to the first post also, so the growth can be compared easily to the other previous pictures. Durgan
I had the same problem with late female flowering, the key is the ratio of N:K fertilization. Nitrogen should be reduced and Potassium increased at the very start of blooming. Have a look at my loofah vines. URL for more pictures: http://www.loofah.biz/luffasavannah/vines.htm Late female flowering causes a serious problem, weather will get colder before the fruits are ripe.
I picked up a Loofah seedling at the garden store late last spring. I felt sorry for it trying to bloom and vine in it's little peat pot sitting among the rejects. It grew like crazy here in southern Pennsylvania on black plastic. We have not had frost yet, and had over a month of drought in early fall and then over a week of rain and it's still growing. My question is how do I dry the gourds to be used as sponges?
URL to pictures of the the harvested fruit. Total of three plants. The fruit was very difficult to see in the massive vegetation until the vines were pulled down http://aliyneca.notlong.com 30 Oct 2005 Loofah Plant I picked the loofah fruit on 30 Oct 2005, because of the potential of frost. The fruit was not ripe. They did not dry over a period of a month, so I put them in the compost heap. Next year I will start them earlier, and put in a full sun situation, since they must turn yellow on the vine to make sponges. These grew outside from 1 June to 30 Oct.-six months. The plants were quite atractive, and well worth growing. Durgan
