Made with Xara SGP Home Garden Luffa Things to know: • Luffa need a good fence or railing to climb on.  The vines can grow 40 feet long and each fruit can weigh 5 lbs or more.  Each vine can have 1-10 (or more) luffa on it at any time.  This fence is a heavy gauge 2” x 4” woven wire fence with a 1” x 6” wood top rail.  The wood top rail is very important. it keeps the woven wire fence from collapsing. • Luffa have a long growing season.  They will grow for 180 days or more.  The largest fruit can take 45 days to mature.  You can start them early indoors and move them outside when frost danger is over. • Luffa blooms are very large and showy. Luffa bloom EVERY MORNING for several months.  The blooms are spent by late afternoon.  The pollinators are so busy with the blossoms that the blossoms are full of holes and tears by afternoon.  • Don’t plant luffa in high traffic areas.  You want to give your pollinators room to work without provocation.  A back fence or quiet corner are good out of the way places for luffa. • Luffa draw large numbers of pollinators, predominantly LARGE pollinators.  (As in HUGE bumble bees, and other unusual insects that you may have never seen before. • Think about planting the luffa in a low-traffic area to minimize the risk of getting stung or otherwise disturbing the pollinators.  • Luffa make a great vine to put across an overhead arbor, but the fruit will hang down, it is a gratifying sight, but watch your head. Growing Luffa I wouldn’t trade a cow for a handful of luffa seeds, but I can see how it could be tempting.   I have never raised a crop that gave me more to brag about every single day (except maybe zucchini.) Luffa seeds are very virulent and the vines are robust.  Luffa seem to do well with modest watering every day or two, and they can also handle a very wet climate.  We grow them organically and they thrive without chemicals of any kind.   Luffa is related to the cucumber and there are many varieties of luffa.  Some are edible when they are small, see the photo to the right.  The two varieties we grow are for sponges.  The leaves, see photos to the right. and fruit are slightly different but both make good sponges.    The plants are bitter so nothing here in central Florida eats the leaves or the fruits; that is neither animals, horses or raccoons, or or insect as far as I can tell. The fence line in these pictures is 56 feet long and has 12 luffa planted along it.  The yield is approximately 50 mature luffa in a season.