Organic luff seeds. Help!!???

[Mike T]

Steven, It does look like that and it is striking at the corn that is it's competition for garden space.It curled over the trellis.They are the same size as the NG long bean (squash) and produce loads of food.It is a maher, BMc but not glamorous enough to get the seeds from.That is my retired fish filleting cutting board that is now a garage seed processing board, ie seed purgatory.You can see it is a bit empty and I will not bother with the sapodillas and UD hog plums.

[Hollywood]

I planted the smooth luffa vine this growing season and I have to say it is a bit of a disappointment. It looks similar to zucchini, grows well and other than some fruit-splitting issues, it is impervious to insects and disease here in South Florida (unlike zucchini). So there's that.

It tastes like a cross between cucumber and zucchini. I like cucumber and zucchini, and this would be a good trait if it tasted like zucchini when cooked and cucumber when raw. Unfortunately, it tastes like zucchini (without the pleasant nutty overtones) when raw and it tastes like cooked cucumber when cooked.

It could have value as a filler vegetable in casseroles, blended and heavily seasoned/sauced.

The other negative is that you have a narrow window to harvest luffa for eating. It quickly gets oversized and spongy.