My Chayote Squash Journey

betsy wrote:
I grew a massive chayote plant in my greenhouse last year

What USDA grow zone are you in?

My plants did not recover. I just placed a new set of chayote on top of my fridge. Hope springs eternal.

I forgot to mention in the earlier post, that when I first looked into raising chayote some years ago, I was put off by the amount of trouble it required; originally, chayotes are short-day veggies, and directions would say to uncover the plants for 6 hours, then cover them again til the next days, continuing until they flowered and set fruit.

This is important as many have pointed out the diversity of types available; I would love to get my hands on some home-grown ones from LA as I live in nearby MS!!  I have rad recently somewhere that a long-day variety has been released and it is no doubt a LA cultivar.  Anyway, I thought all of this was important to mention.

In reply to Betsy, I've heard that chayote squash need to cross-pollinate. Likely your plant was doing great and just needed a friend!

Thanks Joylynn for starting this thread! I found out that local Walmart had chayote for $1.25 in Nov. Although it was months away from the next planting season, I bought one to get the idea of how it might grow indoor. It was surprisingly easy to germinate and it has been growing quickly by the sunny window. I pinched the tops regularly to encourage lateral shoots and to keep the size under control. It may help with fruiting too, as I read somewhere that chayote produces more male flowers from the secondary shoots and female flowers occur in tertiary shoots.

Here are some pictures with approximate dates to show the progress. I may start from fresh chayote again in March if there are stocks in store by then.

Hmmm... I just skimmed the thread again, I think I failed to report that I managed to kill those plants before that summerwas over.. Bummer. We're creeping up to a new spring. Chayote is in season at Walmart.

L Johnson wrote: They grow on the east side of the trees primarily.

About how many hours of sun do they tend to get? My new proposed spot might only get 4 hours of sun.

Very hard to judge... Especially since I'm not even sure where the vines ate coming out of the ground from now. I think they do alright in some shade though since they are climbers. They try to get to the top of whatever is shading them out.

I've got one growing under the rabbit cage. They will creep around until they can climb into full sun, even if it's only a wee bit.

My poor stressed plant did not survive the winter. Sigh.

So this late spring, I purchased two Chayotte from the store, put them on top of the fridge, same as last time. One just sat there, and lost it's volume. Dead Chayotte. The other one did not sprout roots. Weird. But it did send out a spindly vine with no leaves. My kitchen is kinda dark.

So I took a chance and planted it in the garden, with a tomato cage for support. Voila! Leaves!

Update on my chayote plant above.
I planted it out in mid May when the weather got warm. It looked quite sad being potbound and some leaves devoured by my chickens. But once its roots found the soil,it's growing crazy. I popped up a 16ft cattle panel 5ft off the ground as trellis. Here's the plant staring to climb on it.

It's almost day neutral now and my chayote is still full of leaves with no flower insight. The same plant had a few male flowers in Feburary to March indoors. For people living in low latitude area, what's the day length your chayote/choko starts to flower?

Edit to add: I looked closely this morning 9/22/23 and I saw clusters of tiny male flowers on new growth.  Good luck to other chayote growers here! Fingers crossed for a late first frost!

I bought a daylight neutral variety of chayote online last fall. It's supposed to flower in the summer and has a better chance to get fruits before frost than the tropical kind. I received it in October and kept it in the fridge wrapped in a paper bag. It shrunk a bit but started to sprout 10 days after being out of the fridge. I cut it open carefully and only planted the seedling part since the rotting fruit attracted fungus gnats.

I have to disagree with the commentary on grocery bought Cho Cho or chayote as you call it. I’ve sprouted tens of grocery bought Cho Cho and all but a few that weren’t taken care of well both sprouted and bore fruit. The fruit seemed different from the original. The ones I purchased were all the light green variety most bore dark green fruit that resemble the black Cho Cho variety.

The prickly chayote started flowering in early August and is producing strongly right now. I let it climb up the yew bush so they are playing hide and seek with me.

Hey May, have you cooked with it yet! What did you make? Would you make it again?

I use it just like other summer squashes. Slice and stir fry with choice of meat. This fruit just reaches mature size so it taste mildly sweet and crispy tender, not mushy or fibrous. The plant just picks up production and will continue to frost. Some people reported harvesting near 200 squashes out of one vine.

Bea Bee wrote:I have to disagree with the commentary on grocery bought Cho Cho or chayote as you call it. I’ve sprouted tens of grocery bought Cho Cho and all but a few that weren’t taken care of well both sprouted and bore fruit.

Bea, chances are you're in a warmer climate zone. When I lived in subtropical Sydney, chokos were almost a weed, the weight of the fruit pulling down fences and clothes lines and new plants growing from every fallen fruit. No one really wanted to grow them because they were just so easy to grow and so prolific. My sister tells me that her choko vine there destroyed her clothesline recently, a huge solid metal Hills Hoist!

May is facing different challenges -  she's successfully growing them in winter-chilly zone 6. I think that's quite amazing!

I regrew another plant from the fruit I saved last year. It was a slow grower and didn't take off until July. I made a temporary trellis for the explosive growth afterwards. Flowers appeared in late August and fertilization at this time was important to ensure bounty harvest. I top dressed with compost and wood ash. By early October I have picked some 50 fruits weighing 21 oz on average and new flush is still developing. When cutting the fruits for cooking, I took some time to extract the seeds, which remained viable if kept moist. It saves lots of fridge room if I want to keep more for planting next year.

A lovely Permie sent me two chayote. I managed to kill them. I'll try to keep some alive again next year.

I had one overwinter (despite a frost that killed most everything else in the garden-- the actual plant was in a nice sheltered spot) and it's been there for quite a while, at least one year if not two. The spring rains just came in the last month or so and the darn thing has exploded into a tangle of vines and flowers. I'm going to see how long this plant lasts-- I have planted a few more fruits in hope of having more, but they haven't made it.
I don't really eat the squash, they're cheap as dirt here and probably less flavorful. But they shade the rabbit run and the girls really enjoy eating them, thinking it's prime garden produce they're stealing from me (their favorite pastime is eating whatever greens they can reach through the fence).

To be honest, I only left myself two chayote squashes for replant this year. In January the first one died. I started the only one left in Feb with home made compost and it was sickly looking. It survived long enough to be transplanted outdoors in ground. It grew happier until the heat and drought set in in late July. Everything in my yard was taking a hit and I managed to rescue with pH and micronutrient management. Everyone's situation is different but in case you have seen similar abnormalities, I'd be happy to share more details.

Here are the ugly photos: