Burying loofah gourds

Solid idea? Bad idea?

The idea of hugelkultur is to create a spongey core of brown plant matter under a mound of soil. What's spongier than a loofah?

Matthew McCoul wrote:Solid idea? Bad idea?

The idea of hugelkultur is to create a spongey core of brown plant matter under a mound of soil. What's spongier than a loofah?

While this would work, it would not last as long as rotting wood, which is why most hugels are built with rotting wood, not only is it "spongy" but it lasts at least 10 years.

That's about what I figured.

I need to do some serious and quick soil building on this property, so quick rotting/short lifespan also means quick humus. Good here.

Ty. I'll do both.

doing both types will indeed give you the best of both.

I like your idea of using loofa, we will give that a try next year it should work for at least 2-3 years before most of the loofa is broken down.
Our land has lots of hyphae all over now and that will help with the break down tremendously for us.

I'd love to hear how it worked out with burying the loofahs.
I'm thinking that it should give a nice head-start to beneficial soil organisms, having that space and airiness in the soil. Also, I'm wondering if for annual vegetables, having a loofa buried nearby can work somewhat like an olla, where the roots can get extra water stored there as needed.