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Angled luffa is also called Chinese okra,
although it has nothing similar to okra.
In Asia, it is grown in hot summer for its immature fruits
which are great in stir-fry, soup and steam recipes.
Like a lot of popular summer vegetables,
luffa is cooling, diuretic and detoxifying.
Angled luffa likes warm and hot weather, rich and wet soil.
Temperature lower than 60 F, it grows very slowly.
Luffa plant grows vigorous vines.
The challenge for growing luffa in back yard garden is not how to make it grow bigger.
It is how to maintain the vines in a good shape
and at the same time still produce plenty of fruits.
Luffa is a short day plant,
which means it requires a long period of darkness in order to grow flowers.
For some areas in certain season, for example,
in Florida in summer time, day time is very long.
Some gardeners may find out that their luffa plant grows vigorous
but has no flowers or fruits for long time.
Luckily from long-term training and breeding work of many seeds companies,
the luffa varieties that are less sensitive to day light time are available in the market.
These kinds of luffa will bear flowers very early and still grow well,
no matter in short day season or long day season.
I think they are perfect for back yard gardening.
No matter which varieties of luffa you grow, the growing method is similar.
Depending on varieties Luffa seeds may have very hard coat and are difficult to germinate.
Before germinating your luffa, use nail clipper
to carefully clip a small open at the edge of seed.
Stay away from the embryo to avoid killing it.
This will make the seeds germinate much faster and easier.
Sow the seeds in potting mix and keep the soil wet.
Luffa will grow cotyledon in a week.
When the seedling grow 4~5 leaves, transplant in your garden.
Add a lot of organic fertilizer, turn over the soil and bury the fertilizer deep.
Plant your luffa next to a strong trellis.
One or two plants are enough for family consuming.
In the next few weeks, luffa will start to climb up trellis.
For early matured varieties, you will notice that baby female flowers
are growing when the vine gets to half way on trellis.
Remove the tip when it reach the top.
This will encourage side vines to grow.
It is better to remove any female flowers on main vine at this moment.
Fruiting too early on main vine will weaken the whole plant’s growth.
For late matured variety, remove the tip when the vine half way on trellis.
Wait for side vines to grow.
Keep 2~3 side vines and remove the other side vines.
Only keep 2~3 leaves on side vines then remove the tips.
Let tertiary vines to grow. Prune tertiary vines in the same way.
By doing this, you can prevent luffa vines take over your whole garden before it starts flowers.
Continue to do this until you see female flowers growing. Let vines grow freely.
Remove any “slide vines” which mean vines without female flowers.
Pay attention to luffa shoots.
You will see baby female flowers from the first few leaves at almost every leaf.
Keep 3~4 female flowers on each vine and remove the tip.
This will prevent the vines over-growing and at the same time to focus nutrients on fruiting.
Angled luffa flowers in the afternoon right before sunset.
Usually insects are not very active at this time.
So you should manually pollinate the flowers.
Pick a male flower, remove flower leaves and gently touch the female flower.
A well pollinated female flower will grow bigger in a couple days.
Luffa is not a dense gourd, so the fruits grow very fast.
The best time to pick is one to two weeks after fruiting.
Don’t let the fruits get old or they will develop “sponge” inside.
After picking your luffa fruits, remove any yellow leaves,
week vines, slide vines and vines that have finished fruiting.
Side-dressing luffa plant with some 10-10-10 inorganic fertilizer
will make it grow back quickly.
Few days later, more new vines will grow back.
Prune the vines as method above.
Keep on doing this you can have your luffa fruiting for long time.
Luffa is an easy to grow, super productive and very healthy summer vegetable.
If you like it, don’t forget to check out in our online store for the seeds.
We will carry more different varieties at the end of this year.
Plan what you will grow for next year and come to get the seeds.
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