As we are nearing Autumn, less sun hours and cooler temperatures, we have to start thinking about the drying out process of our luffas. All Summer long they have been growing – hopefully! – into decent sized fruits and some may have even started drying out on the vine already.

In my two pots with 8 plants, I have 9 luffa currently growing. two of those – they were early to set – have started to dry out already. In that same pot I have 3 other luffas which are still very much far away from that! I will keep watering and feeding (this to boost the plant being able to put energy into growing those fruits larger) both pots until about mid September – possibly end of September. This is a good cut off time for me thanks to a warm September and a mild October – usually. You may need to do this earlier if you’re further north and colder weather sets in earlier.

I’m not sure as to the why of things but I’ve found over the years that the longer I keep watering my Luffa plants, the longer it took for them to dry and cure. By keeping the vines alive (watered), the Luffa won’t set and dry? Sort of makes sense but also doesn’t, right?

Caring for whilst drying out
Whilst your luffa are starting to dry out, and if you are still watering at this point to grow the last set fruits a bit bigger, you can help the plants along by cutting off any flower buds, new flowers – both male and female, any new side shoots, and if the growing tip keeps growing like mad – you can cut that one off too. This will help the plants to put their energy into the already existing Luffa fruits rather in trying to make more. At this time of year in our climates, they wont grow into anything useful in time sadly. It’s best to conserve the energy in what’s already there.

Once your Luffa is fully dry, meaning that;
– the skin a golden brown
– the skin is crinkly & crispy/crunchy sounding when you gently squeeze it or push on it
– when the whole thing rattles when you shake it (those are the seeds!)
– the plant has fully died off

This all means your luffa is fully dry and ready to be picked and peeled!
Whoop, you’ve made it to the final stages!!

There’s frost coming, what do I do?
In the unfortunate event that your Luffa hasn’t reached the stage of being fully dry before the first frost sets in (this will affect those that are growing their luffas outdoors most) it’s important to pick them of the vine and take them into your home to cure there further. There are two methods I’ve tried; in the dehydrator and in the oven.

What to do when your luffa doesn’t dry out in time?
There are various methods to dry your luffa out to get that spongey texture we’re after. I’ve tried both dehydrator and oven and both resulted in usable luffa sponges.

– Dehydrator method
My first successful year growing these sponges, it got to november and I still had a luffa hanging off the vine that was no where near being dry or cured. I took it in and stuck it in the dehydrator. Before doing so I weighed it and it was 1.6kg!

By using a long and slow heating method the flesh of the luffa fruit dried out and I was left with the fibrous sponge centre we want! As mine was huge it took a rather long time (18hours I believe at the lowest setting) and after peeling I washed & rinsed them thoroughly, they then went in for another drying session. Bear in mind that I had no idea what I was doing at the time and I’m so glad it all worked out!

– Oven method
This is my neighbours luffa. She grew them two doors down from me in her garden in one of those “flimsy” greenhouses, with seeds I’d given her and she started really quite late in the season! May or even June when she sowed her seeds.

Amazingly she managed to grow 3(!) luffas to decent sized fruits. The one in the photos here was the biggest one and it got mistaken for a cucumber and harvested prematurely.

I took it in to dry it out in the greenhouse and do the oven method (as not everyone has a dehydrator to do it in). I peeled it after it had started to rot (oopsie!) and after I stuck it in the oven for about an hour at 100C. After peeling (be careful when you start as it will be really hot to touch!) I gave it a few thorough washes and it’s now ready to be used (obviously I’ll be handing it back to my neighbour.

Sadly the seeds inside were all duds as they just didn’t have the time to mature into viable capsules of life.

Peeling
In my opinion the best part, along with shaking out all the seeds. Once you’ve peeled the outer skin off you will be met with the sponge. It’ll be full of seeds and those are important to get out fully. A lot of them will come out without any issue. they’ll be loose and happy to fall out by themselves. Some are a little trickier to get out and might need some squeezing, pushing, pulling etc to get them out. The last few you’ll be able to wash out.

Washing & Drying
Making sure you get out all the seeds will not only will that make your sponge softer to use (ie. no sharp points poking through) but it also means any left over luffa flesh won’t rot, and I don’t know about you but I’d rather not put anything on my body that is in any state of rotting – however minor. doing this step means you will have literal years of use out of your homegrown sponge.

My preferred method of washing in a thorough wash with just warm water. It’ll look like absolute abuse on the luffa but it will bounce back – I promise! Next I wash my luffa with some fairy liquid (or liquid handsoap) thoroughly and rinse until water runs clean and clear of soap suds, left over luffa flesh and seeds. Now that it is fully washed and rinsed you can hang it somewhere to dry fully ready for the next steps, this could be making Square Scrub Sponge, soaps, Sponge Body Puff, Back Scrubber Sponge etc. (these DIYs will be covered in our final Grow Along “Luffa Grow Along – part 5 What’s next?”

Seed Saving
Once you’ve shook and washed out all the seeds it’s a good time to wash any remaining luffa flesh off of the seeds. This will prevent any rotting and also means you can asses the seeds to see which are viable. Some will be white, some will be black or something in between the two and some are like little pockets of air. Those last ones are the ones that will not have anything viable in them to grow a new Luff vine, those you can get rid of. As for the white or black seeds, over the years I’ve found both work just as well in sprouting and growing strong plants. I think the ‘white’ seeds just didn’t get enough time to “tan” into black seeds.