How to Clean a Luffa Gourd

Slice your cleaned luffa sponge to make handy little scrubbers.

Luffa gourds grow best on a trellis system, so you can easily grow them along the back of your garden or on a fence where you can control the wandering vines. As the gourds become brown and dry, pick them from the vines and allow them to dry further in a sheltered location. When you can hear seeds rattle in the dried gourds when you shake them, it’s time to clean the gourds to harvest the sponges they contain.

Things You'll Need

• Dried luffa gourds
• Bucket or tub of water
• 10 percent chlorine bleach solution (optional)
• Knife (optional)

Instructions

1. Clean loose dirt from the outside of the hard luffa gourd shells with a brush or damp cloth.

2. Soak the luffa gourds in a tub of water for up to 20 minutes, or until the shells soften. Remove the softened gourds from the water.

3. Use your hands to pull open the softened luffa gourds and slip out the sponge-like mass of fiber inside.

4. Shake out the seeds. A few seeds may be embedded in the fibers, but most will be loose inside the softened shell.

5. Plunge the dried fibrous sponge into a 10 percent chlorine bleach solution to soak for a few minutes if you prefer a light-colored sponge. Lightening the color is for appearance only; bleaching the sponges is not necessary.

Tips & Warnings

• Save the seeds you shake out of the sponges to plant in next year’s garden.

• Slice the sponges crosswise with a kitchen knife to make round scrubbers, or leave them whole to use as large bath sponges.

• Although you can harvest green luffa gourds and open them to retrieve the fibrous sponges inside, the fibers are not mature and are not as strong as those found in dried gourds. If you harvest green luffas, rinse the sponges immediately in water and hang them to dry completely.

References

• North Carolina State University: Commercial Luffa Sponge Gourd Production

Resources

• University of Minnesota Extension: Growing Luffa Gourds