2020 was the first year I grew luffa (loofa/loofah) gourds, and it was a learning experience. I planted my seeds a bit late because I decided to grow them on the spur of the moment. I placed my order on March 14, and as you probably remember the world as we knew it ceased to exist about that same time. Suddenly everyone was interested in starting a garden, and it took Baker Creek over a month to fill my order!
I heard luffas take a long time to grow, but fortunately we have a loooong growing season here in zone 8b, so I wasn’t too worried about it. But man, those guys weren’t kidding about how long it takes them to mature. I direct seeded the luffas into the garden shortly after I received them in mid-April, and I didn’t harvest my first gourd until mid August! I will say once my luffas got going they were very prolific. The bees loved the beautiful yellow flowers, and the plants did not mind the East Texas heat one bit. Because of the length of time to maturity unfortunately I was only able to harvest about 4 gourds before our very late first frost in November killed the plants. I had about half a dozen gourds that were too immature to harvest. 🙁
For 2021 I plan to get a much earlier start.
Growing Instructions
If this is your first year growing luffa, be sure you have a trellis or some sort of structure it can climb. I currently use cattle panels folded in half & poked into the ground, and that worked really well for the luffa.
You can direct seed luffa (which I did) or get an earlier start on the growing season & start it inside & then transfer to the garden after 4-6 weeks. Because luffa is a tropical plant you need to wait to put it in the garden (or direct seed) until the soil temperature is between 68 and 86 degrees & the threat of frost has passed. When is your first & last frost date?
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