Yes and no. The description of them if picked while young fits very well. The pictures look very much like I remember. Except the pods didn't get to be 8 to 10 feet long and bitter at maturity.

My Mom saved the seed for several years and the seed was a lot like okra seed. She didn't like okra and never grew it so I'm pretty sure I'm not getting the two confused. I remember she used to let the pods dry and would open them up the following year and plant the seed out of them. It was a vining plant that she had growing on a trellis.

I'm sure if the pods got to be several feet long she would've been showing them to anyone who would look at them, that's just the kind of person she was, and being a teenager at the time and embarrassed by her often bawdy behavior, I think it would've made a lasting impression on me.

Thanks a bunch for trying to solve the mystery. I may plant the seeds I was sent last year and see how close they come to what I remember. I wonder if it's possible that the pods would've grown longer if she had left them on the vine, and if what she was planting was immature seed?? Would seed that immature even germinate? If so, that might be the answer. --Ilene

That's the plant I was trying to remember. Never grown it. But I know someone in Claremore, OK, who has. I think their size description could be a bit off. Also, there may be varieties which attain to different sizes.

George

Oh, I've grown this but never heard it called okra squash. (Light bulb goes off in forehead.) LOL

My seed was simply labeled luffa. You can eat it while it is small (and, pretty much, the smaller the better) and, if you let it stay on the vine until the vine dies in the fall, it will have a hard, spongey texture. Then, you peel it and dry it and you have a sponge!

Evergreen Seed has several varieties of luffa, but the ones I grew both in Texas and our first year here didn't look exactly like any of the varieties Evergreen carries. I think Livingston Seed was my seed source.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Chinese Okra at Evergreen Seed

I grew Angled Luffa this year which is called vining okra. It is Luffa acetangula and also called ridged gourd. It can be eaten raw like a cucumber or cooked. They need to be picked young before they get tough.I fried it like okra and it was very tasty.

When can I get seeds off of my coming okra .