Are you using any fertilizer? Try a bloom booster.

hi there,,,,I only have a bit of experience with these luffas,,,,my first year i bought some cee gwa seeds from stokes and learned that only the ones I planted in a passive green house produced a few very interesting fruits.(growing outdoors is a waste of time here) Last year i planted seeds that i collected from a luffa grown in costa rica,,,well they grew great like 20 ft long but not a flower all year(in passive greenhouse),,,,this year i am back with a few cee gwa from stokes and wow it almost looks like i know what i am doing,,,,they are all in passive green houses and setting lots of fruit, a few are 8 inches long, the vines are about 9 ft tall so far,,started these mid april....I was wondering where you got the seeds you planted,,,it seems to me that this can be a big factor...well best of luck,,,luffa on gregg

Are you sure they aren't blooming? Some luffas are night bloomers that depend on moths for pollinaton and don't open the flowers till almost dark. By the time the sun comes up most of the unpollinated flowers have dropped off.

How interesting! Hm..... some luffas are night bloomers.... I am sure that they aren't blooming. Even though I check on them only during the day time, I don't see any close-up blooms or any signs of flower-like objects on them.

Ok....bluebirdie.. not bloom until late september...Wow...that's crazy, but I guess that yours was one of the variety that needs 200 days....LOL

I'm not sure if the variety needs 200 days or they need the day to be shorten (to 9 hours or so) but the result is the same regardless. It seems no matter how early I planted them, they took their time to fruit.

BTW you will know when your luffa flowers. The male flowers come in a cluster, while female flowers come with a baby around 2 inch long (depending on the variety). thefarmguy is right. After the beginning few blooms, there will be lots of them. You won't miss it. If your fall is warm, you'll have enough to harvest.

One minor detail, due to the odd blooming time hoodat mentioned, I had to hand pollinate the female flowers in order to get early fruit set because our fall nights were too cold for insects to work.

It's been quite a while since I grew luffas but I seeem to remember the vine had to get quite large before I got the first flowers.

How's the luffa doing? Did it ever flower?

I've got luffa that I planted in Alexandria, Virginia in April but had to transplant (yes they survived and thrived). They have been producing male flowers but I haven't seen any that I can identify as female flowers.

This is my first year growing luffa but I watched my grandfather grow it every year down in Charleston.

Any suggestions as to why I don't see female flowers? Can someone tell me how far apart they are from the male cluster?

If you do not have any fruits by now, I am afraid, if you get any from now on, won't mature.

As has been said some gourds family are night bloomers and their flowers are WHITE. The flower will open after sundown and will close at down. This is the time that bees have gone home. Only moths can pollinate them. If there are no moths you will not get any fruit. The other alternative is HAND pollination.

I know these, b/c I have grown bottle gourds in the past and have done hand pollinating.

What is a passive greenhouse?

I had beautiful yellow blooms last year. Was so surprised when the vine reached long lengths and still no flowers this year, possibly the same seeds. I thought it might be because I egged it on with horse manure compost tea, something new. The other plants just got 3 leaves and quit... I loved those yellow blooms! I will try covering them?

This is my second year growing luffa, starting seeds indoor and plant in container in March. I am in Northern CA. This is the second year my luffa vines grow like crazy, but don't flower until September. It's Nov 1st and it's still flowering and fruiting. Hoping I don't get hit with a hard frost and I can harvest. I don't know why mine do this, but last year I got a good harvest in December. Hoping for the same this year.

There are 2 cultivated species of luffa; Luffa acutanglia (ridged/angled luffa) and Luffa aegyptiaca (smooth luffa). The first can be difficult to grow in the higher latitudes, since it can be photo-period sensitive - which means it only blooms when days/nights are about 12 hours in length. Unfortunately for those with short seasons, that means the Autumnal equinox, in late September. I tried angled luffa twice, and never even got flowers before my weather cooled.

Smooth luffa is more likely to succeed. I grew a variety of smooth luffa this year, after reading that they are more likely to be day-neutral. Had some reservations, since the seed was from Florida; but even planted late, I had fruit, and even a little ripe seed.

What are you all doing with your Luffas?

I grew luffa primarily to pick young, as a vegetable; but I did allow a few to ripen for seed. Hadn't really planned to grow them for sponges, but after cleaning out the seeds, ended up with a few... and I love them. The larger fruits can be cut into 2-3 sponges. I now plan to grow some for sponges every year. The vines are beautiful in bloom too, the showy 2" flowers are produced continuously.

I used to grow luffa, smooth skined one quite well in southern CA. i brougt plants from store then. Now, i am at Northern CA, use seeds to grow. vines grow crazy, but no flowers until Oct, then females splits, cannot grow as night temperature drops. i tried this year again, no flowers yet. i suspect it may be the seeds, i bought them from 99 ranch market. my friend used my seeds in S. CA did not had fruit last year either. Any suggestions?

Sounds like you either have a photo-period sensitive variety, or your climate is too cool... luffa needs plenty of heat.

I have successfully grown 2 smooth-skinned varieties here in Wisconsin, after failures with angled luffa (Luffa acutangula, was misspelled above). Those are the varieties "Joy" and "Long Beauty" (which IMO is not really long). Just picked some at the immature edible stage today, they bear almost as quickly as cucumbers. Both are from AsianGarden2Table in Florida.

Of the two, "Joy" has the longest fruit immature, but "Long Beauty" gets female blossoms at almost every node once it starts blooming.

Thank you for information on seeds and variety. next year, i will try ”long beauty”. my seeds do not have any specific variety name, and still no flowers , but grow vigorously.