Grab your free seeds and grow your own loofahs

Grow your own loofahs from seeds. Each vine will grow several loofahs in a few months. And you can grab the seeds, left, from Nambour Produce.

Homesteading Column with Racheal Pascoe

Loofahs are fun to grow and are useful around the house. Don’t pay $6.50 for a small piece at the shops any more. Grow your own for next to nothing! I will give you the seeds … read on.

Loofah plants like full sun and need to be kept damp, but not soaking wet. 

They will also require a trellis or fence to climb along. The vine itself is kind of messy looking, so don’t plant it on your front fence! 

Tuck it away where you can check on it but not be bothered by it when it dies back and turns yellow. 

Start by soaking the seeds in water overnight and then plant out into the place where you would like them to grow. Or you can start them indoors in small pots to get them going. 

Once the vine starts to reach out, you can encourage it along in the direction you want it to go. It will grow beautifully along a fence or over an arch.

One vine, several loofahs

Each vine will get several loofahs and they are ready to harvest in a few months when the skin on the loofah goes brown and is dry and crunchy to touch. 

If you find them a bit hard to peel, just soak them in water and the skin will soften a little. Each mature loofah has lots of seeds inside, so when you are harvesting save some to share with friends. 

Simply take the bottom end of the loofah off and the seeds will fall out into your hand.

If your loofahs don’t look clean when you peel them, you can soak them in a bleach bath to brighten them up. A mix of 10 parts water to one part normal household bleach works well.

If you are crafty, you can do up gift packs of loofah, with soap and a face washer. Most people are really interested in loofahs, what they look and feel like and of course how they grow.

An interesting fact about loofahs - if you like to cook Asian dishes, you can harvest the loofahs when they are young and cook them along with your vegetables.

Free seeds at Nambour Produce

If you pop into the Nambour Produce Agency (60 National Park Road), I have left some complimentary seeds for you to grow. Just ask Ryan, Ally or Matthew and they will give you the seeds. They also sell sugar cane mulch which ideal for loofah plants and a great range of bagged potting mixes to get your loofah seeds growing in no time.

I hope you enjoy growing and harvesting loofahs. I like to share them with friends and marvel at how awesome Mother Nature is to grow a fruit like this.

Happy Gardening!