Giselle - Member - The Prepared

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Reply to: Has anyone grown their own luffa? Posted August 20, 2022

I’ve been growing Loofah for 40 years, using them for body, face, house and car washing. I’ve never had a bacterial infection, but if you are worried about that, just pop them in the microwave wet for 1 min. and that will kill a lot of bacteria if not all. (It will be hot, so let it sit to cook, or use pot holder.) Also, I let my loofah peal itself. I don’t harvest them until they dry on the vine. What this does, is that it seeds itself. I let them grow where the seeds fall year after year, against a fence. But there are always plenty of seeds left inside the pods that you can shake out and save, which I do. If the loofah is too big, just use a pair of utility scissors to cut them to the size you want. I just retired a loofah I had been using for 15 years. It never got mold, and honestly, it still had it’s shape, but after all those years it had lost it’s more brittle/scrubbiness. I cut it up and use it as drainage at the bottom of flower pots when I plant something new. You must let it dry between uses, which doesn’t take long because it’s all porous. (My loofah dries by the next day) Also, you can run a chord from top to bottom, and use it as a back scrubber. (I would keep it whole so it covers more of your back.) Multi-generation in my family using loofah, and we have never had bacterial infections, allergies, etc. Enjoy growing and using your loofahs!

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Reply to: Has anyone grown their own luffa? Posted August 20, 2022

I’ve been growing Loofah for 40 years, using them for body, face, house and car washing. I’ve never had a bacterial infection, but if you are worried about that, just pop them in the microwave wet for 1 min. and that will kill a lot of bacteria if not all. (It will be hot, so let it sit to cook, or use pot holder.) Also, I let my loofah peal itself. I don’t harvest them until they dry on the vine. What this does, is that it seeds itself. I let them grow where the seeds fall year after year, against a fence. But there are always plenty of seeds left inside the pods that you can shake out and save, which I do. If the loofah is too big, just use a pair of utility scissors to cut them to the size you want. I just retired a loofah I had been using for 15 years. It never got mold, and honestly, it still had it’s shape, but after all those years it had lost it’s more brittle/scrubbiness. I cut it up and use it as drainage at the bottom of flower pots when I plant something new. You must let it dry between uses, which doesn’t take long because it’s all porous. (My loofah dries by the next day) Also, you can run a chord from top to bottom, and use it as a back scrubber. (I would keep it whole so it covers more of your back.) Multi-generation in my family using loofah, and we have never had bacterial infections, allergies, etc. Enjoy growing and using your loofahs!