Corking: Another way to Verify You are Getting An Authentic Heirloom Mirliton

Did you ever notice the brown lines on some mature mirlitons? They’re a fairly reliable way of knowing if the mirliton is a locally grown Louisiana heirloom. Dr. Jorge Cadena Iñiguez, a leading world expert on chayote (mirlitons), recommends we use the term Corking or Cork lines for the brown, cork-like lines that sometimes appear on the skin surface of mirlitons.

 

Corking in mirlitons is a form of “lignification” and is composed of lignin, the same substance that comprises bark cell walls. It probably develops to protect the fruit from pests and disease. What is important for us is that only mature mirlitons develop cork. So, if someone is selling or gifting a mirliton with cork lines, it was probably locally grown. (Imported chayote is never left on the vine long enough to develop cork lines.)

 

 Not all locally grown mirlitons will have cork lines; they may have been picked fresh off the vine. But if you see corking, it’s another reason to believe it’s an authentic Louisiana Heirloom mirliton.

Made In the Shade

 

In 2023, we learned that mirlitons need partial shade when there is prolonged, intensive heat above 95 degrees.  That, along with substantial ground irrigation, can get us through another Heat Dome. 

 

If you are not lucky enough to have natural shade, a good shade cloth is the answer. It can be thrown over the vine or mounted over it. Shade cloths come in different shading percentages, and we recommend 40% cloth with grommets so it does not blow away. They are available at Amazon and most big box stores.  Shop around online to find one that will last for years. An Amazon link is here.

Preventing Cross-Pollination in Mirliton Varieties

There are no scientific studies on cross-pollination in mirlliton varieties, so we can’t speak with any certainty about the chances of cross-pollination. Mirlitons are self-pollinating plants and are primarily pollinated by bees.  Honey bees are systematic foragers; they will focus on one plant until they have collected all the nectar.  That means they are less likely to carry pollen from another plant, thus reducing the risk of cross-pollination. 

Because of this, generally, you can grow two different varieties with little risk of cross-pollination. If you grow only one variety at a time, you will have even less risk. But if you want to ensure that the offspring of a plant will be true-to-type, there is a simple way to do that: controlled pollination.

Using controlled pollination will guarantee that the specific fruit you picked from your vine will grow the same variety. Click here to see how to do it. 

 

Mirliton Seed Online Store

 

Lee Flynn created and manages the Mirliton Seed Online Store, which she does as a volunteer. The store sells only certified Louisiana Heirloom Mirlitons. They are sold at cost, depending on the price that the grower charges (some are donated). Mirlitons are only available in season, and the quantity per order is limited so that everyone can obtain one. If we are out of stock, you will be put on a waiting list and be notified immediately when available.  Click here for the store. 

Additionally, people advertise heirloom mirlitons when they are in season (Spring and Fall) on our Mirliton.Org Facebook Group.

 

Frost Protection

Frost Protection

Frost Protection

There is a possibility of a damaging frost whenever the temperature drops below 38 degrees. You can protect your mirliton with either a minimum or maximum plan.

Minimum plan: Tent the vine the day before with a tarp or 4mil plastic cover. A FEMA tarp will work well. Weight down the edges of the tarp with bricks (you are trying to trap the heat from the soil inside the enclosure). This will raise the temperature a few degrees and may avert the frost.

Maximum plan
: Add heat to the tent. You will need a 50’ extension cord and a small space heater. A space heater will raise the tent’s internal temperature several degrees, which will protect the vine if temperatures dip to 32 degrees. There are also portable gas heaters.  Buy a remote thermometer and place the sending unit in the tent enclosure and you will be able to see exactly what the internal temperature is. Remote thermometers are the best defense against a freeze–and cost only
$20. Buy it here.

Rethinking The Mirliton Planting Schedule: Winter Vines and Summer Shade

Rethinking The Mirliton Planting Schedule: Winter Vines and Summer Shade


The Louisiana Mirliton Two-Step

Because of increased extreme weather events like Heat Domes and frequent hurricanes, we need to think entirely differently about when and how to grow mirlitons. We have two chances at a mirliton crop: Spring and Fall. We need to especially take advantage of our cool months, October through May.

Step One
Plant your mirliton seed or container plant in the fall and build a trellis for the vine to grow on all winter. When necessary, temporarily cover it with 4-mil plastic and warm it with a portable heater to protect it on frost/freeze days. By the following spring, the vine will have a large canopy to support flowering–and you will get a spring crop.

Step Two
To help your vine get through the summer, use the same trellis to support a 30% shade cloth to shade the vine from June through August, if necessary. That will give you a a good chance at another crop in the Fall

10’ X 25’ 4-mil plastic sheets

Space Heater

Shade Cloth

Remote Thermometer for Enclosure

Hand Pollinating Mirlitons

Hand Pollinating Mirlitons

Sometimes bees and other pollinators are not doing their job and you want to ensure that your female flowers are pollinated. The simplest way is to hand pollinate with a slender artist’s brush with dark bristles. The bristles make it clear that you have collected yellow pollen from the males. Using a brush means you do not destroy the males and can return to them for additional pollen. Click on each photo in this link to read the instructions.

Identifying and Managing Anthracnose in Mirlitons (Chayote)

Mirliton leaf infected with anthracnose. Unlike powdery mildew which yellows uniformly and wilts the leaves, anthracnose starts as yellow wedges between the leaf veins. It then turns the leaf tissue brown and leaves with a distinctive “shot hole.”

Anthracnose is a summer disease caused by many fungi, but the pathogen that affects mirlitons is Colletotrichum lagenarium. For the purposes of this article, I will call Colletotrichum lagenarium the “anthracnose fungus. It is a chronic problem with mirlitons and it’s the main reason plants die the first year. There is no known synthetic or biological fungicide that can prevent or eradicate anthracnose in mirlitons. But anthracnose is like a sprained ankle; you can’t prevent it or take a pill to cure it, but you can minimize the risk of getting it and speed up the healing process.

Anthracnose and powdery mildew (PM) are fungal diseases that start with a common sign; leaf yellowing (chlorosis). It’s important to recognize the difference because powdery mildew can be treated, while anthracnose can’t. The PM fungus spreads on the surface of leaves, initially as faded yellow dots and then yellowing the whole leaf until it wilts and dies. Anthracnose, in contrast, grows inside the leaf cells and spreads cell-to-cell (intercellularly)l, so it tends to spread between the leaf veins and form sharp wedges. It kills the tissue within the wedge spreading across to the whole leaf, so you will see both yellow and brown tissue in the same wedge photo.

Mirlitons tend to experience anthracnose epidemics in July and August because of rain patterns. Intensive rains splash up anthracnose fungi from the ground onto the plant stem. The fungus incubates during warm nights and produces thousands of spores that are contained in a sticky base. Rainstorms dissolve the sticky film which releases the spores. Then, raindrops splash the spores to adjacent leaves–and that’s why anthracnose epidemics occur during the hot rainy season.

Anthracnose infects every part of the vine, including leaves, petioles, and stems. It will eventually split the stem, preventing the flow of nutrients to the ends of the stem, so suddenly a whole section of the vine will wilt and die. The good news is that for every stem lost, a healthy vine will send up a new shoot. It is a tug-of-war with the disease through the summer, but generally, the disease will disappear by September in time for flowering and fruiting.

The key to surviving an anthracnose epidemic is to have a healthy vine in place before the epidemic. That means a well-drained and aerated vine. When the soil is water-saturated and no oxygen is available in the root zone, plants go through dramatic changes to survive. They are literally in “anoxic” soil like the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. They shift from aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism: they have only 5% of the energy efficiency they have in healthy aerated soil; they produce toxic organic and inorganic compounds, and they deprive leaves of potassium crucial to maintaining leaf functions. After 24-48 hours, the roots have been damaged making it more difficult for them to uptake water and nutrients. Leaf functions are weakened and the whole plant is vulnerable to disease.

The good news is that a mirliton will acquire increased resistance to anthracnose every time it gets the disease. If your vine gets anthracnose this year, it is less likely to get it next year.

The solutions are simple.

Ground Planting:
Make sure the soil is well-drained and aerated. Plant on your highest area available, use planting hills, and stay away from roofs. Plant near a tree if you have one; trees are natural sponges and tend to stabilize soil moisture. If you already have the vine planted, you can dig shallow drainage trenches to remove excess rainfall away from the vine or add a corrugated drain pipe or a French drain.

Raised-bed Planting:
Remember that a raised bed can’t drain into a saturated yard, so you need to construct a bed that will permit excess rainfall to escape the bed via the sides. Add a lateral route for excess water to exit above ground level by drilling 1/4 “ holes along the side panels.

Summary:
For now, the best protection against anthracnose is (1) to use only locally grown heirloom mirlitons for seed since they are likely to have some resistance to anthracnose; (2) plant in well-drained, aerated sites; (3) provide plenty of trellis space so leaves on top can spread out and get maximum exposure to the sun (a natural fungicide) and air circulation; (4) minimize leaf/soil contact by using an overhead horizontal trellis at least 4 feet above the soil and (5) always irrigate gently with a hose set on low on the surface or drip irrigation to prevent splash-up of soil-borne fungi. Do not water mirlitons from the top down. Once leaves and stems are brown and dead, remove them and dispose of them away from the vine.

Click here to see photos of anthracnose infection signs on leaves and stem at different stages (click on each photo for descriptions)
Click here for how to identify and manage powdery mildew.

What is a Certified Louisiana Heirloom Mirliton?


Up until about 2020, any mirliton grown in Louisiana was an heirloom mirliton. They were what botanists call a “landrace.” Landraces are domesticated plants that developed over time and adapted to their natural environment and are not the product of human manipulation–such as plant breeding or modern genetic science. Haitians brought the first mirlitons to Louisiana over two centuries ago and that landrace thrived because it was adapted to our altitude, climate, pests, and diseases.

The mirliton landrace is easy to recognize because of its distinctive fruit traits; they are large, slightly pear or egg-shaped, with smooth skin, longitudinal furrows (though a few may be unfurrowed), and either green or white. Over the years other varieties were introduced from Mexico and Central America and interbred with the Louisana landrace. The resulting landrace was what generations of Lousianians simply called “mirlitons.” And for most of the last two centuries, there was only one variety.

Then things changed. After Hurricane Katrina wiped out almost all mirlitons in New Orleans, garden experts advised me to buy any chayote (mirliton) from a grocery store and plant it. That didn’t work because almost all imported chayote grew at high altitudes and would not produce in Louisiana. So I began to search for growers of our Louisiana landrace to replace the New Orleans ones. I soon found many growers in rural areas and when I did, I would name the mirliton after the grower so that we could track and preserve it.

I eventually noticed differences within Louisana mirlitons–there were clearly different subvarieties in the landrace. Mirlitons were more complex than we thought. Since the Louisiana mirliton has never been genetically analyzed, I decided to classify the subvarieties by fruit appearance (morphology), and then interview the growers to determine the strain’s history. If I could establish that the mirliton had been continuously grown for at least two decades, then I named it after the grower. That way we could keep that particular line going. That’s how named varieties came to be.

So there are two categories of Louisiana mirlitons:

1. Unnamed Louisiana Mirlitons is the name for the traditional Louisiana landrace. That encompasses almost any mirliton that was locally grown in Louisiana. We call these “unnamed variety.”

2. Named Certified Louisiana Mirlitons are the few strains within the larger unnamed category that Mirliton.Org has named after investigating and verifying they have been continuously grown for at least twenty years in Louisana. There are currently twelve named certified varieties of Louisiana heirloom mirlitons:

Ervin Crawford
Joseph Boudreaux
Ishreal Thibodeaux
Boudreaux-Robert
Blacklege
Papa Sylvest
Bogalusa whites
Chauvin-Rister
Remondet-Perque
Miss Clara
Bebe Leblanc
Maurin

 

 

Only these named certified varieties have been researched and verified as authentic heirlooms. If you grow one of these named varieties, you can be confident you are growing a Louisiana heirloom.

Why is it important to continue tracking heirlooms? Beginning in 2020, several grocery store chains began to import chayote (mirlitons) that looked exactly like our heirloom varieties because they sold better. And some people began to grow them because they were indistinguishable from our heirloom variety. The problem is that imported chayote may carry a deadly seed-transmissible virus that can destroy the Louisiana variety. It’s called Chayote Mosaic Virus (ChMV), and it’s devastated crops in other countries.

If you want to preserve the Louisiana heirloom variety and keep them safe, the best way is to only use certified heirloom seeds like the ones named above. Mirliton.Org offers a free certification service and maintains a list of certified growers.

We can also certify new varieties that you may come across–and we expect the list of verified ones to grow. If you find a grower who says that their mirlitons were locally grown but have no name, the grower can ask Mirliton.Org to verify and certify them as an heirloom variety. We will do that by examining fruit characteristics, taking an oral history, and conducting visits to grow sites.

Recent Posts

Made In the Shade

  In 2023, we learned that mirlitons need partial shade when there is prolonged, intensive heat above 95 degrees.  That, along with substantial ground irrigation, can get us through another Heat Dome.    If you are not lucky enough to have natural shade, a...

How to Use a Soil Sampler to Prevent Watering Problems in Mirlitons

The soil sampler is the simplest way to see how much moisture your mirliton roots are getting. It's the only quick, inexpensive way to see if you have over-watered or underwater your vine. James Leblanc shows you how to take a sample and check the moisture levels at...

Preventing Cross-Pollination in Mirliton Varieties

There are no scientific studies on cross-pollination in mirlliton varieties, so we can't speak with any certainty about the chances of cross-pollination. Mirlitons are self-pollinating plants and are primarily pollinated by bees.  Honey bees are systematic foragers;...

Mirliton Seed Online Store

  Lee Flynn created and manages the Mirliton Seed Online Store, which she does as a volunteer. The store sells only certified Louisiana Heirloom Mirlitons. They are sold at cost, depending on the price that the grower charges (some are donated). Mirlitons are...

Frost Protection

Frost Protection There is a possibility of a damaging frost whenever the temperature drops below 38 degrees. You can protect your mirliton with either a minimum or maximum plan. Minimum plan: Tent the vine the day before with a tarp or 4mil plastic cover. A FEMA tarp...

Hand Pollinating Mirlitons

Sometimes bees and other pollinators are not doing their job and you want to ensure that your female flowers are pollinated. The simplest way is to hand pollinate with a slender artist's brush with dark bristles. The bristles make it clear that you have collected...

Identifying and Managing Anthracnose in Mirlitons (Chayote)

Anthracnose is a summer disease caused by many fungi, but the pathogen that affects mirlitons is Colletotrichum lagenarium. For the purposes of this article, I will call Colletotrichum lagenarium the “anthracnose fungus. It is a chronic problem with mirlitons and it’s...

What is a Certified Louisiana Heirloom Mirliton?

Up until about 2020, any mirliton grown in Louisiana was an heirloom mirliton. They were what botanists call a “landrace.” Landraces are domesticated plants that developed over time and adapted to their natural environment and are not the product of human...