luffa for cooler climates

Anyone out there growing luffa / loofah in a cooler/coastal climate?  I am homesteading on an island in the Salish Sea (coastal BC Canada) and have been trying to grow luffa for several years with no luck.  Our site does get hot in summer but usually only for a couple months.  Last year the vines did ok but only just started making fruits and they didn't get far enough elog to make the dish scrubbies I was hoping to get.  I'm just trying to source seeds to try again and they are so expensive (like $6.50 for 4 seeds!!!??).  Has anyone here in zone 7/8 or colder had success growing luffas?  There seems to be a woman in Nova Scotia doing it ( https://luffacanada.ca/ )
and I've sent her a message, but thought I'd ask here too.  I had this epiphany about plastic dish scrubbies - no wonder there's so much microplastic out there!  Holy geez.  So many things we buy just to wear out into the environment and pollute it eh?  (paint, tires, garbage bags(!)......

Here is a lady growing luffa and many asian greens in Toronto area. She also sells seeds for CA$3 /10 seeds plus $4 shipping. Here is her YouTube video in Mandarin with English subtitle

I managed to grow a small luffa this year before the frosts killed the plant. I grew it in the greenhouse in a large pot. There was only a single plant and it seemed to happily self-pollinate.

My plant seemed perpetually unhappy and it put on fairly spindly growth with fewer leaves that I would expect from a curcurbit. It seemed hardy down to freezing (0C) but the first frost it was exposed to killed it and turned the fruit black and mushy.

I won't have a greenhouse this year, so I can't try again, but I would try and bring the seeds on much earlier (using a propagator or on a windowsill) to extend the growing season as much as possible. I imagine it would have fared better in a polytunnel than my greenhouse as the humidity would have been more stable.

It took me three years to get luffa to grow.  Didn't grow 1st year, didn't grow 2nd year, started seed in cells and they came up, but didn't do anything in the garden.  I am not coastal, I am central California, zone 9b.  Third year I put them in the front yard instead of the back and they grew 8ft tall (on a trellis).  They really need the heat and a long grow time.  They did not dry on the vine before the first freeze was forecast so I brought them in and let them dry inside.  Some molded, but many dried fine.  Did not dry in time to use for Christmas gifts that year, so I did not grow them last year.  Finally got them cut into rounds and poured homemade soap over the top to make scrubby soap for gardening hands.  I still have a bunch of luffa logs left.  I'll have to try using them in the kitchen as a scrubby.  I tried it at the outside sink and they disintegrated really quickly...too much UV?   $3 for 10 seeds?  Shoot, I could have put my kids through college with all the seed I saved from these!

I also am in 9B (south america) and it took me several years to get loofa going-- until the year it mysteriously went well and I got HUNDREDS. They take a bit to get started (I have birdhouse gourds going alongside loofa, planted at the same time, and the gourds have exploded while the loofa is still small) and they do like heat. They are, however, resistant to all the bad things in my summer garden- no bug attacks them, they dont get the mildew that kills the beans, once they get going they are unstoppable. I'd say look for a nice warm place (my best ones were against a wall that stayed warm) and get an early start, as mentioned above.

I also didn't get them to dry on the vine (needed the garden space for other things after so many months...), I cut them and hung them on the porch til they dried enough to be processed.
I use them in the kitchen, give them away, next time I'll eat them immature, but I only grow them every few years because when they are successful you're drowning in them!
I do find the seeds to be viable after years (they fall out of the current sponges when I use them, and there are dozens)

I have tried but didn't quite get to it fruiting and seeding properly due to some pest issues, things getting too hot and me forgetting to water them consistently! Part of the problem with them is the germination rate on luffa seeds is really poor and yet the seeds always seem to be rather expensive so you buy your ten expensive seeds and get only about 2-3 decent plants going if you are lucky. I will probably try again when I have a better system for growing them like an aquaponics system so I can remove the human error from growing them.

Though I live in the warmer zone 6(growing season May to Oct), luffa is still challenging to grow for the sponge. It's very slow to start if directly seeded in ground. The first female flower won't show up till late August and only the first several luffas make it into maturity for sponges before first frost.

Yet I like growing it every year because it is pest resistant and flowers profusely for bumble bees. Also young luffas are tender and delicious.

Here are a few things that might help growing luffa successfully in a cooler climate:
 Soak seeds and scarify before planting
 Start indoor as transplant
 Tip pruning to encourage branching. I haven't tried this out but another tropical plant chayote also produces female flowers late in the season mainly in tertiary shoots. Maybe getting more lateral shoots will bring out female flowers early.

The fibers in the luffa take a long time to form, so unless the fruits are tough by first frost, I won't keep them for sponge. I agree the price of luffa seeds are quite high since a single luffa is able to produce hundreds of seeds.

here's a source for more reasonably priced seeds:
https://www.superseeds.com/products/luffa-gourd?_pos=1&_sid=142815a61&_ss=r

This is a Maine company; I've had good success with their seeds.

Fedco is also a good source but they're out of luffa seed at the moment.

I’ve grown luffa with ok success in coastal northern Spain (zone 9/10) but the fruit don’t always ripen (leave alone dry) on the vine before winter humidity kills the plants. Instead of drying the whole fruit (with a high risk of rotting) I clean the pulp of the fibre straight after harvest and just dry the fibre skeleton. It works well even for immature fruit - at least well enough to use them as kitchen sponges.

Hilary Duinker wrote:Anyone out there growing luffa / loofah in a cooler/coastal climate?  I am homesteading on an island in the Salish Sea (coastal BC Canada) and have been trying to grow luffa for several years with no luck.  ..

O.K., some helpful hints about germinating, planting, and growing gourds.
Access the "Indiana Gourd Society" web site. In the upper left corner click on the GREEN SQUARE for a Menu. On the Menu cursor down to 'Education Articles' and you will get a ton of articles all about gourds.

But, for a quick bit about growing Luffas. Info for the mid-west states, (Indiana(Fort Wayne latitude)/Michigan areas) is to start your seeds inside 4 -6 weeks before last frost date. Use of a large Styrofoam cup or other container that large is ideal - so have that on hand with the seed starting mix from your local Nursery. Once you determine that you're ready to start your planting, soak your seeds for 12-24 hours using a small dish and a 50/50 mix of water and 3% Hydrogen Peroxide. This gives the seeds a boost when germinating.

Place your seeds with about 1/2 of covering seed starting soil mix. Keep the top moist by a daily squirting of water from a spray bottle. It will benefit greatly from a heater blanket with a cardboard surround, not top or bottom. You can purchase a stick-on thermometer from WalMart or other like stores. The temp should be 80 F degrees in the surround. Use a flat piece of cardboard to cover the top of the surround enough to reach that temperature.

You should see sprouting within a few days - but, DO NOT disturb the soil in the containers. One way you might check sprouting without disturbing the soil is to drop a seed in a folded paper towel and keep it moist as well as the containers you're using. You can check that every day or every other day. That will sprout a bit quicker than those in the soil.

Keep your plants healthy! Pushing a sharp pencil through the side of the cup or container about 1/2" from the bottom will allow good drainage. Once the plant starts developing DO NOT allow water to spray on the plant. You might try a small fan somewhere in the area that your plants are growing inside to simulate a gentle wind which helps strengthens the plants.

SO, it is around the 3rd week of June and soil temps should be around 55 F degrees - so time to transplant in your garden. Be very careful about the roots when transplanting. In fact spraying the plants at any time is a NO-NO.  Just water around the base of your plants. IF necessary, just cut down the sides of your container so you can remove the plant without disturbing the roots. When planting in the hole you've prepared just sprinkle the back-fill soil around the plant without packing down the soil - watering and possibly added soil with take care of moving the soil down around the roots better.

Gourds watering requirements are the equivalent of about 1" of rainfall weekly - unless if it actually rains. These grow well on a trellis or other frame work. Leave only 3-4 gourds growing per plant. IF you decide to hand pollinate, the male gourds flowers are usually along the main trunk of the stem while female gourd flowers are on runners from the main stem. Pick a male flower and holding it upside down just shake it over several female flowers and pollination should happen.

I hope this helps you to get your Luffas growing as early as possible. Check your Frost dates by typing in "Last Frost date for (your location)" in a Browser and you should get good info back. And you might also check your soil temperature before you do your transplanting.

I'm in USDA zone 5b and it took me a few years of attempts to grow luffas to maturity. The growing season here is not long enough for direct sowing and even starting them in trays without potting them up didn't work for me. My notes say the year I grew them successfully, I started them in trays indoors under lights March 24 and then potted them up into 4" pots on April 20. I believe I also fertilized them 1-2 times with Neptune's Harvest while they were under lights. I planted them out after last frost (not sure of exact date but likely early to mid May) and trellised them. At the end of the season I brought some inside to dry and left some out to dry out after frost and both seemed to work ok. The mature luffas were still not quite as fibrous as the commercial ones but are still functional. The spot I had them growing had slightly less than full sun so perhaps they'd be more fully mature in a truly full sun spot. I haven't grown them since 2020, since as someone else mentioned, when they are successful they can be quite prolific and I still have plenty left!

I believe I've gotten the seeds for them from Fedco https://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds and Baker Creek https://www.rareseeds.com/ (not sure if either ship to Canada), and saved my own as well.

Hilary Duinker wrote:There seems to be a woman in Nova Scotia doing it ( https://luffacanada.ca/ )

Hilary, the pics on her site should the vines growing in a polytunnel. My guess is that makes a big difference on season extension compared to growing them outdoors.