Grow your own bath sponge! Luffa gourds are the familiar bath sponge. Growing your own will keep you entertained all growing season and are great fun for a long time after they are harvested. Peel ...

A. If seed isn't available at your local garden center, order luffa from Park Seed, 1 Parkton Ave., Greenwood, S.C. 29649; 800-845-3369; www.parkseed.com. Also called Chinese okra, vegetable sponge ...

MCCANDLESS, Pa. — To most Americans, a luffa is a sponge. But to Wei Fei Chen, it’s a wonder gourd that’s fun to grow and good to eat. “You can saute or steam it with tofu, shrimp, chicken. Sometimes ...

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but sponges grow on vines. Loofahs (also known as luffas) are a type of vining plant that produces fruit that closely resembles a large zucchini. The loofah fruit can be ...

Shaped like an oversized apple, these hard-shelled gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) grow six to eight inches tall and four to six inches across. In India, young fruit is added to curries. The skin is ...

I have been getting a lot of questions lately on how to handle a luffa or loofah gourd to get a usable sponge. Luffa or sponge gourds should be harvested when the outer shell is dry. When you can hear ...

I was introduced to the Luffa gourd while living in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, where it grows on every telephone pole in the province. Guanacaste has a dry tropical forest ecosystem with at least six ...

QUESTION: I'm trying to grow luffa gourds for the sponges, but the flowers keep falling off without making fruit. -- W. H. ANSWER: Luffa vines (Luffa aegyptiaca) are generally reliable about producing ...

Editor’s note: Luffa plants will be sold at the VCMGA Spring Plant Sale on April 2. Last September at Rockport’s Hummingbird Celebration, my friend Janet pointed to a huge vine with long ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. You’ve probably had or used a loofah sponge in your life, whether in the bath or for cleaning around the house. But did you know ...