You’ve hopefully been able to watch the first Instagram Live session (±20 min) I did on how to pre-sow your Luffa seeds and you will have seen how I prep my seeds.

If you havent been able to and just want to read along in your own time, here’s what you’ll need and what to do in a nutshel.

You’ll need:

• Seeds (4-8 depending how much growing space you’ve got – I can plant 4 in my Ikea pot with metal obelisk, links for both in the section below)
• Nail clippers or small sharp scissors
• Damp (warm) kitchen roll paper (use a bowl)
• Ziplock bag or lidded plastic tub
• Warm spot indoor (warm airing cupboard is best or sunny window sill above a radiator, or your heat mat – remember, these are tropical plants so we want to mimic their natural growing conditions to the best we can).
  – 🔥 If doing it straight on the radiator make sure your seeds don’t cook with the direct heat as it will be that much stronger than a heat mat or airing cupboard! check on your seeds every day/every other day to make sure to take them off the radiator as soon as they’ve sprouted roots

What you’ll have to do:

1. Clip the smooth end of the seed, only a thin slither is needed. This is to let water get inside the hard seed shell and helps speed up germination. If you cut too much off your seedling will have a lot less Cotyledon* (seedling leaves) to content with.
2. Next put your clipped seeds in the damp kitchen roll paper and put inside your ziplock bag.
3. Close it up and put in a warm spot, light is not needed yet at this point, just heat.

*Cotyledon (seedling leaves) leaves are the first leaves that can engage in photosynthesis, helping the plant develop during the early stages of growth. Unlike the later “true leaves” that will emerge as the plant matures, cotyledon leaves are crucial in kickstarting the plant’s growth. So you’ll want to have the most leaf possible.

Now that you’ve got your pre-sprouted seeds, it’s time to put them into the soil.

1. Check in the next few days to see if the seeds have germinated. It usually is somewhere between 4-7 days. Once you see roots and/or even some leaves poke out (this when left a little too long usually – I’ve had this many times – as, you know, life happens) it’s time to plant them up into soil.
2. Use a 9cm pot (or a little bigger) and fill in with soil. Tap the pot so the compost can settle and no air pockets remain. Poke a hole – not too deep! – with your finger/sharpie  and place the sprouted seed/seedling, root down into the hole. 
3. Gently** press the soil and firm in & around the seedling and water well.
4. Keep indoors in a warm and sunny spot (a dome or upside down clear plastic tub can help create a mini greenhouse effect), Luffa are a tropical plant and are not frost hardy.

As you can see is that the root comes out at the “bowtie” end, this is why we cut at the smooth end where the leaves emerge from 🌱

Tip**: Try not to handle or touch the roots. They are very sensitive and fragile. Where possible use the seedling leaves or the actual seed casing to handle your seedling. If the roots are so long that they need help getting into the soil, use a tooth pick or bamboo skewer to help them into the soil, they’ll sort themselves out after that.

• For the next phase we’ll be taking good care of our little seedlings, the compost you’ve put them should be able to provide all the nutrients they need so giving them any type of plant feed is not needed yet. I personally feel that if you do this too early on the plants become dependable on external sources rather than trying to search for it themselves in the soil. We don’t want spoiled little seedlings and therefore eventually spoiled plants.
• I find the seedlings stage of luffa always dreadfully slow going. They just don’t seem to grow at all until all of a sudden they do. Don’t be alarmed though, you wont have to deal with a jungle before you plant them into their final place
• Just make sure they’re watered, warm, no heat mat needed by now and have plenty of light. This can be as simple as a west or south facing window or by using grow lights (a first for me this year!). Once they’ve got several sets of ‘true’ leaves or when roots start poking out you can start potting them up into a bigger home. We won’t plant them out into their final space until the last frost dates have passed – specially if you’re planting them outside or in the ground!
• -> here’s the link to check for your average last frost date in UK , here for NL, and here for Germany & Belgium.
• Once we do plant them out into their final spot you’re going to need a structure for the vines to climb up on. I use these self watering pots from Ikea and an obelisk like this one, both shown in the main photo of this section.

One of these pots holds 1x 40l compost bag easily and up to 4 Luffa Plants. This year I will make a bamboo “obelisk” for my outside experiment – which will be documented too – incase you’ve already got that on hand. Overall I’d like to keep things like cost down as much as possible and use what’s on hand. For my outside luffas I will be using a ceramic pot I already have (currently holds a Rockrose that really needs to go into the ground 🤦‍♀️ – so that will be a good incentive to get that done in time!).

Now, you don’t *need* to put them in a pot, it’s just how I’ve been doing it for years with success. One year I tried it in my raised beds (on wheels) in the greenhouse and they did not do well at all. Whatever you will choose will be a trial and error until you find what works best for you.

I’m really going to try and be as broad as possible in how I’m growing them this year so that hopefully anyone can do the same, no matter where you are or how you’re growing them yourselves.

Good luck! 🌱