«Jupiter» - Organic Luffa Seeds
1.14 €
Forget paying boutique prices for this all-natural, luxurious bath sponge! Grow your own Luffa Gourds and discover even more uses for this fascinating, porous fruit! The fruit of these species is cultivated and eaten as a vegetable.
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Ukrainian heirloom luffa «Jupiter»
The fruit of these species is cultivated and eaten as a vegetable. The fruit must be harvested at a young stage of development to be edible. The vegetable is popular in China and southeast Asia. When the fruit is fully ripened it is very fibrous.
Forget paying boutique prices for this all-natural, luxurious bath sponge! Grow your own Luffa Gourds and discover even more uses for this fascinating, porous fruit!
On the vine, these gourds can reach anywhere from 6 inches to 2½ feet long, and about 4 to 7 inches in diameter. They ripen to dark green in late summer, and should be left on the vine until the skin begins to shrivel. When this occurs, harvest them and scrub the skin away, revealing the porous, dense network of tan-colored matter within. They will be full of seeds. Just cut the gourd to desired size and shake out the seeds. They're ready to use!
How to grow
The first step in growing luffas is to plant your seeds. The season for growing luffas is extremely long, so you need to expect to start your seeds extremely early and grow them indoors under a light sort of like a house plant. In Oklahoma, I start mine in January and set them in the ground outside around April 15 or early May. They need to grow a foot long or more before you plant them in the ground.
(If you’re wondering if luffa is the correct spelling, you can spell it that way, or loofah, either is correct, so spell it however you’d like.)
Luffa seeds can be tough to germinate. It can take anywhere from a week to two months for them to sprout. The ones we planted two years ago took 6 weeks to germinate, and the ones we planted this year took one week. Be prepared to be patient.