Growing Edible Gourds
Most people are familiar with different types of squash—yellow crookneck, zucchini, spaghetti, delicata—but did you know some types of gourds also are edible? The variety of edible gourd we grow at Greenville Technical College in the Sustainable Agriculture Program is cucuzza (Lagenaria siceraria). The gourds have light green skin and white flesh.
Edible gourds prefer the same growing environment as most squash: at least 8 hours of sun a day and rich, moist but well-drained soil. Plant the seeds after the last frost of the year and begin harvesting at approximately 55 days from germination.
Cucuzza vines can grow 2 feet a day, double the growth rate of kudzu. The fruit is purported to grow 10” a day! From 5 plants, we can pull 80 pounds a week in peak season. Official recommendations for optimal size at harvest range from 6” to 20”. The chefs at GTC’s Culinary Institute of the Carolinas have prepared delicious dishes with even larger cucuzza fruits.
Another type of edible gourd is the luffa. These gourds should be harvested at 6” or less. If you’ve never grown a luffa plant, it’s certainly something you might want to consider. They love to vine on fences or trellises and produce beautiful, large, yellow flowers that feed a steady stream of bumblebees.
To use luffa for sponges, harvest in the fall when they are dry on the vine. Be sure to pick them before the first frost. When you peel the dry shell from the luffa, you’ll see the interior “skeleton” that we use for sponges.
Most garden catalogs offer luffa seeds. For cucuzza, visit growitalian.com and search “cucuzza.”
