An application eight weeks after planting prevents loss of color. When the skin turns brown or yellow, pick. You can easily peel at this stage, although many growers wait until the luffa is totally dry and brown. Shake out the seeds, and bleach the interior with chlorine bleach if you like. Growing Ornamental Gourds Ornamentals are just as easy to grow as zucchinis.
Ornamental seed look like summer squash seed although different kinds can have different size seeds.
They germinate well without soaking. Ornamentals mature in about 90 days from planting, so count backwards from when you want them to choose a planting time. In the Carolina Piedmont, a late April to early May planting will produce a crop by Independence Day, and you can celebrate by planting more for fall harvest. Plant hills about 4 feet apart in rows four feet apart. Plant three seeds to the hill, about half an inch deep.