Three days of devastatingly hot weather were still not enough to dry the oats completely. I threshed two sheaves and got about 500 g out of them. Which is bad; it means I might expect as little as just 3 kg from the whole patch. But I did not thresh the second sheaf completely, because the grains still did not want to separate from the chaff, so I put it aside for now, and I am letting it dry a bit further. The weather forecast so far does not include any major rain; at best, we could get a very light shower.
But there is some progress on the loofah front that I’d like to mention.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
The loofahs started to drop the female flower buds that were emerging at the stems very early in the season, which was getting me a bit worried that this whole enterprise might be a bust. Which it still might be, but there is hope now. About a week ago, a new flower bud emerged in the tangled mess at the top of the greenhouse, and it matured and flowered very quickly. I was able to pollinate it, and it grows fast – today, it is about 15 cm long and getting bigger every day. I tied it with twine to the greenhouse construction, so if it gets too heavy, it does not rip the vine.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Today, another one opened, and I did my best to pollinate it again, although there were only two male flowers open at the same time. In the heatwave, the doors to the greenhouse are constantly open, so insects get in there too. I hope they help too.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
And more female flower buds are hiding in the green tangle. They are not easy to find – I can find one one day and not find it again the next. Luckily, the flowers are bright yellow, so once they open, they are easy to spot.
According to Google, loofah fruit needs about two months to fully mature from pollination. I have weather data for my garden for the last 12 years, and in this time, we never had the first frost before the end of September, and sometimes we even had it as late as the beginning of November. Loofah is sensitive and will probably die before the first frost, but hopefully not before the fruits reach enough maturity to be able to go the rest of the way indoors.
One thing is clear, though – no matter how they taste, growing loofahs for food is not a viable endeavor here, not even in the greenhouse. If I wanted to grow expensive water, cucumbers would be a better option.
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