[basjoos]

I've tried eating luffa, but didn't like the flavor. I grow the moschata cultivar Seminole and a self-seeding cross of Seminole with Thai Large (which I discontinued growing after one year since some were killed by borers) which popped up in the compost pile and has self-seeded around ever since. I've never found any borers on them. Although I can find a few squash bugs on them, they don't get bad enough to bother the plant and have nowhere near the squash bug populations that show up on the typical summer squash cultivars. Since Seminole is a wild/feral cultivar from Florida, it has had to survive the pest pressures found in southern Florida without any help from man. Down there, it will grow for years and eventually cover acres of land. Around here it will run 50 feet in a growing season.