Congrats! I'm impressed you were able to grow it from grocery store fruit.

Kate

johnny---Wow, you surely were determined to grow those chayotes! Glad that you are having success now.

I buy my "seed" chayotes from the grocery store too. I put them on the kitchen counter top until it sends out vine about a foot long. Then I plant it in fertile amended soil. Here is a picture I took today of 2 young vines that are planted closed to each other.

Christine

So you just leave it there as is? Or do you plant it and put it in the dark? Is it planted when you leave it on the counter?

Just bought chayote numbers 6 & 7 to try... yet again. Thanks for the tip on the shade preference.

I have tried them without success as well. Christine, do you leave the whole fruit on the counter or just the seeds? Thanks for any info. :o)

I leave the whole fruit on the counter (unpotted) and wait for it to sprout a long stem, about a foot long. Then I pot it up into a one gal pot for a while until it roots. When I plant it I do not cover the part where the stem is emerging. I place the pot in a shady/filtered sun location while it forms roots (not in the dark). Then I plant it in full sun. They dry out easily so I keep the chayote mulched and water daily for a while. That is what I would consider the tricky part---don't let them dry out.

They bloom in the fall when the days get shorter. I'll post pics of the squashes then.

Christine

Thanks for the info, Christine, I'll have to try your method. :o)

katkin----Good thing you live in south FL so you have some time to get the chayote vines growing before fall.

Great timing for this post!

I put five Chayote in the frig before heading to the Bahamas two weeks ago and just pulled them out to see what's happening. They've sprouted, barely, but that's about it, and some have a little mold at the ends....What now? Do I pull them out and set them on the counter like Christine did?

Tom

Hi Tom---I'm surprised that the chayotes tried to sprout in the frig. If you want to plant them I would leave them on your counter top until the sprouting vine is longer. Then pot them up and keep them in the shade until rooted and they start to grow. It's that easy. Just don't let them dry out.

As for the mold, make sure you get rid of that right away. If any rotten part has penetrated the skin, then cut out the mold making sure not to remove any of the soft seed inside and pot up the chayote right away.

One more thing, don't cover (with soil) the end that has the vine emerging. Plant slightly above the soil line. Let us know how you make out.

Christine

Hi Christine,

I though somewhere I'd read they should be started in the dark/cool of the frig....I'll take them out now to prevent further mold accumulation, it's the fuzzy type and mostly appears to be on the outside in the crevasses where the buds are coming out...we'll see how it goes.

Tom

Tom, cool and dark aren't necessary. I would think that the frig would slow germination since it is a tropical plant.

Christine

After they started to sprout (in a dark place) and had a couple inches of roots, I placed mine in water, kind of like avacado (without the toothpicks)for a couple of weeks, in the north facing window sill, until the green part was several inches high. Then they went into pots. The one started as the whole fruit now has more and fuller leaves than the one with just the seed, although the seed-only one has grown more vine material. I'm about to put them in the soil.

Johnny---Just goes to show that there is often more than one way to do things. Glad you got them going.

Christine

FYI for anyone who's interested....the latest issue of Florida Gardening magazine has an article about growing Chayote AND how you can harvest and eat the "dragon's whiskers" from the plant in between fruiting.

Well, I managed to kill the one that started as a seed. It got overwatered. The other made it into the ground (in 50 - 50 sand and mushroom compost), and while it hasn't grown much, it hasn't died yet...

i'm not in Florida,i'm in louisiana,and have always heard you need a male and a female to produce.you can tell if ya look at ends of them.
patricia

Johnny, did you see my post? I don't think Bernie will care if you want them. I live in St. Pete but work in north Tampa. If you're anywhere close to either one of these locations and want these three sprouted fruits you're more than welcome to them....

Tom