Are you the owner of youtube channel "California Gardening"? The eggplant video shown in that channel is really beautiful.

I grow angled luffa aks Chinese orka aka sze gwa...in zone 9a. Night temperature is a little low - but I also noticed they don't flower when the temperature is too high. They bear fruit in fall when the temperature is little lower until frost.

If you want any seeds, I've got plenty.

Yao Lin - I am not the owner of California gardening channel. I do follow that channel and lot of useful information.

piksi_hk: Does regular luffa, too bear the fruit in fall? My regular (not angled) luffa is growing in pot and in full sun since couple of months (in zone 9a), but haven't seen a single flower/fruit. Just when I thought that its a failed experiment, you comment gave me hope. Another recently planted luffa vine is growing in partial shade, it about 2 feet in height. Any more pointers you have for luffa? Would love have some angled luffa seeds, if you don't mind :).

I'm zone 7 in Virginia and we have been experiencing a heat wave (upper 80s-90s for the past few weeks with high humidity), so I don't know how much weight my info will have in your situation. I grow both kinds of luffa. I planted them two months ago- the Chinese okra variety from transplant and the smooth variety from seed. So far, they are fairly long about 10-15 feet, but only have had one fruit from each variety even though I have planted three of the okra and four of the other kind of luffa. Most years I notice we get the majority of our blossoms and fruit in the fall though when things cool down.

I am in zone 7a, northern jersey shore. I started the Chinese luffa seeds indoor last spring. They did not transplant well and took a long time to recover from shock. I also direct sowed some seeds. I did this in the early season as Chinese luffa is a cooler season plant. They did not do much until much later. I harvested about 10 luffa from about 5-6 plants in late fall. Not prolific at all. Not sure if it's worth the effort for next year.

They are tropical - it takes heat and humidity to make them happy. And maybe a long growing season.

Easier to buy them than grow them.

Depends on where you are in the Bay Area which has numerous microclimates. Where you live might not be conducive to growing them if you are coastal and not inland. They need heat and warm soil temps. However they are easy to find at Asian Groceries.

I'm in zone 10a and it's super hot here in SoCal right now. My little luffa is also just 2 true leaves big despite me planting it from seed about 6 weeks ago! So disappointing. I'm having a hard time growing any of my Chinese veggies :( I wish there were better YouTube videos on them!!

You are not alone. I plant them 10 weeks ago and none of them have more than 3 true leaves. The weather has been on the cool side this spring/summer, as it rarely hit 80F till yesterday. It hit 92F yesterday and is hitting 100F today. I think I made a mistake by not moving them to the shade till 30 minutes ago. Some of them look really sick now.

The sudden heat also killed almost all of my winter melon. I guess we really need to be careful what to wish for. After 2 months of cool temperature, I had wished for summer weather for these plants to grow. Now, just 24 hours into it, I lost almost half of my summer plants.

I would love some seeds to try. I’m in SF. Zone 10b

Please email me