Luffa

Multi use crop that is easy to grow in warm climates but does need a long season. When the fruit is picked young, roughly half dollar or smaller around, it is used as a zucchini substitute. When the edible gourd matures you can use it for sponges. I prefer to harvest as much as I can for fresh eating and let the ones I miss be used for sponges. You can harvest for sponges green but I like to take mine for sponges when the exterior is brown and dry - it makes processing them easier but you will loose some to molding that way. The flowers are absolute magnets for all sorts of pollinators, especially native bees. I usually plant this away from my garden now because the pollinators are so busy here they don't bother with the rest of it. This is a huge plant so don't try to contain it. Place it along a fence or near a tree and let it go. No need to worry about it choking the tree out because its an annual and will die back each winter.

Packet: 20 seeds

Good to start from seed in these months:

North Florida: April

Central Florida: March-April

South Florida: March-May