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Luffa aegyptiaca
Growing calendar
Typical timing for central Japan (Kanto region). Shift it for your own climate, and record your actual dates.
Guides
- How to Start Luffa From Seed Early Enough to Ripen a Sponge
- Trellising Luffa: Support Strong Enough for a Thirty Foot Vine
- Luffa Care Through Summer: Watering, Feeding and Hand Pollination
- Luffa Growing Calendar: From Indoor Sowing to Curing the Sponges
- Luffa Problems: Beetles, Mildew and Fruit That Rots Before It Dries
- When to Pick Luffa: Young for Eating, Dry for Sponges
Common problems
Start from what you can see on the plant.
Pests and diseases (12)
Problems recorded for this plant, most serious first.
Bacterial Wilt
Disease
Leaves wilt while still green during the day and recover in the morning and evening; after a few days of this the plant dies. Cut the stem and stand it in water and a milky white bacterial ooze streams out in threads.
Powdery Mildew
Disease
White patches appear scattered on the upper leaf surface at first, then the whole leaf is coated in a white powder. Leaves later yellow, brown and die back, and reduced photosynthesis cuts growth and yield.
Anthracnose
Disease
Light brown to dark brown round lesions with sharp margins form on leaves and fruit, slightly sunken in the center. In wet weather salmon-pink slimy spore masses ooze out on the lesions.
Fusarium Wilt of Cucurbits
Disease
Part of the vine wilts during the day and eventually the whole plant dies. The stem splits lengthwise near the soil and exudes gum, and the vascular tissue is browned when cut.
Damping-off
Disease
The stem pinches in at soil level, turning water-soaked to brown and thin, and the seedling topples over. Infection before emergence makes the stand uneven with missing plants.
Root-knot Nematode
Pest
The plant wilts in the daytime and does not recover with feeding or watering. Pull it up and the roots carry beaded chains of galls of varying size with few fine roots.
Leaf Spot
Disease
Small round brown to gray-white lesions appear on the lower leaves, the centers turning gray with tiny black specks. As they multiply the leaf yellows and drops early.
Downy Mildew
Disease
Pale yellow to yellow-brown angular lesions form on the upper leaf surface with a gray-purple mold in the matching spot underneath. Lesions merge, the leaves die back and the plant declines early.
