Luffa · Colina, Santiago Metropolitan, Chile
When to plant luffa in Colina
Main outdoor window
11 Oct - 1 Nov
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
27 September
In Colina, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
29 Jan - 30 Apr
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Colina
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
16 Aug - 6 Sep
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
11 Oct - 1 Nov
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
29 Jan - 30 Apr
Luffa through the year
Against the frost risk in Colina
Why these dates
Start indoors six weeks before the last frost, which is unusually early for a cucurbit, and plant out once nights hold above 15C. Sponges need around 150 frost-free days.
Killed at 0C. Fruit left to mature for sponges must dry on the vine, so a late frost ends the crop before the fibre has set.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Luffa are timed from 6 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Colina.
The median frost-free season here is 249 days, against 120 to 180 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Colina
Other vegetables to time
Growing luffa in Colina
When should I plant luffa in Colina?
Aim for 11 Oct - 1 Nov in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 2-23 Nov - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will luffa be ready to harvest in Colina?
Expect to start picking around 29 Jan - 30 Apr, based on 120 to 180 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will luffa tolerate?
Killed at 0C. Fruit left to mature for sponges must dry on the vine, so a late frost ends the crop before the fibre has set.