Loofa is a Plant??

Luffa (or Loofa) Species: Luffa aegyptiaca

Yes! The bath sponges that sell so great in gift baskets are actually a plant not a sea sponge as many believe.

My daughter Samantha is growing the plant this year in her garden (Zone 7a/b). When she showed them to me, I was amazed at how big the plant gourds get. Some are two feet long. They took several weeks for the seeds to germinate. The plants were grown indoors under grow lights for two months. Once transplanted into the garden, they took five months to grow until the gourds were ready to cut. That is roughly seven months total from germination to harvesting time.

Processing Lufa:

• Let them dry out so that the skin pulls away from the inside flesh. They will turn a light green, to yellow to brown.
• Then peel off the skin, You can shake seed out with skin on and snipping the bottom off or peel first.

• Soak in natural pure soap and wash squeezing and squishing the luffas.

• Then rinse out and repeat soaking / cleaning 2-4 more times until the light color is uniform.
• Let dry fully

Note: seeds can be shaken out before peeled or after peeling (sounds like rain sticks). Samantha uses only the organic pure soap and soaks multiple times so as not to use any bleach which can harm the skin. The luffas that do not rinse light cream colored she uses for cleaning.