Creating the right support for your Luffa vines is – in my opinion – rather crucial to success. These vines can easily grow 2.5 to 3 meters long with fruits that can weigh well over a kilo before they start to cure.

My preferred method is using a metal obelisk in a large pot. I’ve found that using these obelisks and these pots, that I bought years ago, have helped me grow large fruits, year after year. I chose this support system because they fit the pots, they’re easy to assemble and by using the horizontals as well as the vertical support you can easily grow several long vines on one obelisk. They are tall (1.9m I believe) and you can even choose to leave some vertical segments out to adjust to your needs.

I tend to plant out my seedlings by each vertical post (as shown in this reel) and as soon as they reach past the first horizontal support I train them along that going clockwise until the reach the next vertical. They then are trained up and round and round we go. Using this system of mine means the obelisk is balanced throughout the growing stage which in turn means that any heavy fruit hanging will not tip the pot over or put strain on the plant. It can just do its thing and focus on growing fruit.

I hope my graphic of how I train my luffa along the obelisk can help you support yours.

Luffa are self fertile, this means they do not need a second plant to help with the pollination. Each vine will produce, from summer to autumn, male flowers in short, thin stemmed in small clusters, and individual female flowers, these will bear mini fruits between the actual flower and the stem connecting it all to the vine.**

All the flowers are bright yellow and up to 5cm across in diameter. From mid-summer, fruits begin to form; these are green and cylindrical, and once successfully pollinated they can easily grow up to 30cm long and before ripening over 1 kilo in weight!

In various Asian countries they are grown as a food and should you want to do this, you have to harvest them when they are still small. Just like courgettes really, they apparently taste similar too. I’ve not yet tried to eat them as I’ve always grown them purely for sponge use, with the amount of plants I’ve got this year I very well may give it a go.

It is pretty common to have an influx of only male flowers and not a single female flower in sight. Or even the other way around. No need for panic, this happens and they will eventually sync up. Once you’ve got both flowers in bloom you have to be relatively on top of it with pollinating. I’ve found that little bumble bees will go into both flowers they don’t always go to each in the same visit. By pollinating yourself you have a higher chance of a pollinated Luffa fruit.

**Image row below shows from left to right; Female flower side on showing mini luffa fruit, female flower, male flower side on showing a thin stem connecting to the vine, male flower

Now that you’ve identified both different flowers and once you have both open at the same time it’s time to pollinate (I would advise to do this in the morning as the flowers will be freshly open and not yet wilting as much) – or as I like to call it; a bit of luffa sex in the morning.

So, grab your morning coffee – or tea – and pick up a soft bristled brush (cotton bud or if neither available, your hands) and head to the flowers. You want to find a male flower and a female flower, both open. The male flower will most likely be part of a cluster of still to open buds, I find it easier to pick the flower (if no brush at hand) and simply fold back the petals towards the stem. This leaves the stamen from the male flower free to be gently dabbed/brushed against the pistil of the female flower.

Voila! You’ve just pollinated you luffa! Now, don’t be alarmed if after all this the fruit grows a bit and then dies off, it happens, sadly. Don’t be discouraged though, there’ll be plenty more female and male flowers to work with in the near future that will take and grow into a big luffa sponge.

Male flower on the left, female flower on the right

Male flower, picked off of the plant

Peel back the petals on the male flower to expose the pollen rich centre

Gently dab the male flower centre on the centre of the female flower, congrats! You've just pollinated your future sponge

It is important to keep your Luffas happy by:

• staying on top of watering – be careful not to over water!
• to give the occasional feed, my preferred feed is a liquid diluted seaweed feed (use your favourite brand for this)
• keep helping them climb your supports and untangle any tendrils that could wrap around and suffocate the vine – we don’t want that
• keep pollinating and new female flowers

and most importantly I think;

• make sure your support frame is sturdy. I’ve seen too many thin versions, ranging from just some twine, to a single bamboo cane or thin and short metal obelisk. They really need something strong that can support the weight of a full grown luffa fruit, the heaviest I’ve been able to weigh (it was November at this point and it wasn’t ripening so took it inside) was over 1 kilo! So please, make sure you have adequate support for your luffa vines.

The next part won’t be until later in the season, and in that we will talk about the final stages of your Luffa growing and drying! by then we’re nearly there to harvest from all our hard work!