Plant · P-348

Ridge Gourd

Luffa acutangula

Ridge gourd is a vigorous vine grown for its young fruit, picked at 6-8 inches and tender enough to cook as a vegetable while still that size - left longer, it turns fibrous. It needs a long warm season, sown after all danger of frost, and roughly 100 days to that first pick, or about 130 if the fruit is left on the vine to dry into a scrubbing sponge instead - a genuine second use from the same plant. It is toxic to grazing livestock, so it should be trellised and fenced away from any paddock a cow, goat or sheep can reach, and its vine or fruit should never be tossed over a fence as feed.