MIRLITON.ORG
Checklist for Transplanting a Containerized Mirliton Plant
✔ Harden off the potted plant before transplanting–or erect a shade cloth for the first week
✔ Plant in fast-draining, composted soil
✔ Add manure or slow-release fertilizer
✔ Water thoroughly the first time.
✔ Use a bamboo stake or soil sampler to determine when to water subsequently
✔ Protect from cold damage if the temperature drops below 50℉
Cold-damaged mirliton leaf.
Freezes and frosts are not the only cold temperatures that can damage mirliton leaves. While not as damaging as frosts, Cold Damage can occur when temperatures drop below 50℉.
Cold damage symptoms often appear several days later and include limp, wilted, or yellowing leaves, and subsequent slowed growth. Light cold damage can generally be outgrown by an established vine, but young, newly transplanted plants are more vulnerable. So protect them by covering them with tarps or buckets and even adding a heating element.
Many people want to grow their own mirliton (chayote) vine but find it difficult to find locally grown mirlitons. Because of their frustration, some people try to grow mirlitons by purchasing and planting one from the produce department in a grocery store, or online from seed stores. There are two reasons why this is not ideal.
First, all mirlitons sold in grocery stores and markets are imported varieties. They are grown and imported only as produce, just like all the other vegetables that you purchase. The USDA tried to grow these varieties a century ago and concluded that high-altitude plants have tremendous difficulty growing in low altitudes. This is because these varieties have adapted to the altitude, pests, diseases, and ultraviolet exposure in their native environment. The patterns of light and temperature influence when and if the variety will flower and fruit. Moreover, an imported variety may not have acquired resistance to diseases or disease pressures that occur in its new environment.
All imported mirlitons will sprout and send up a shoot, but most imported mirlitons will not flower and set fruit. We have received reports of this problem from hundreds of growers over the years, and I had the same disappointing experience when I tried to grow a vine using imported mirlitons.
Second, even if you could grow an imported mirliton, you may introduce new diseases that have devastated mirlitons elsewhere. Local mirliton varieties adapted to U.S. conditions have been grown for over two centuries in Louisiana and California. These were originally brought from low-altitude coastal areas in the Caribbean and Central America. In horticulture, these local varieties are called landraces —cultivars that growers have improved through traditional agricultural methods. The Louisiana heirloom mirliton is the U.S. mirliton landrace that has adapted to the regional climate, diseases, and pests through generations of trial and error. They are a reliable and healthy variety.
But they are vulnerable to new diseases. Many mirliton diseases have not reached the U.S, and some, like the destructive Chayote Mosaic Virus (CMV), are transmitted inside infected mirliton fruit without any sign of infection (seedborne and sapborne diseases). The U.S.D.A. does not screen imported chayote for diseases becuase, rightfully so, they assume that it will be eaten, not planted. If you purchase infected imported mirlitons that carry the disease and then plant them, you may spread the disease to the Louisiana heirloom mirlitons.
There is no cure for CMV and other viral plant diseases, and planting imported, unscreened chayote can potentially destroy all U.S. varieties. That applies to both grocery chayote and chayote of unknown origin sold online. Read about CMV here.
Plant diseases are constantly evolving and afflicting chayote. In Brazil, scientists have discovered two new plant diseases in chayote. One is a new fungus that causes anthracnose disease in mirlitons — another soilborne and sapborne disease that can be spread through imported chayote. Read the article here.
Read the article about the new seedborne fungal pathogens that cause anthracnose discovered in Brazilian chayote herel https://www.mdpi.com/2309-608X/10/12/847
And another has been discovered: Cowpea Mild Mottled Virus (CPMMV). Read about it here.
To summarize: Imported mirlitons may not grow and fruit in the U.S., and if they do, they may have disastrous consequences for U.S. mirlitons landraces.
Many people have asked if there is a danger of interbreeding (cross-pollination) if they grow mirlitons with other squash, like Cucuzza and luffa. That’s understandable because the vines look and flower similarly. The short answer is no, mirlitons and other squash species can’t cross-pollinate.
Mirlitons can only pollinate other mirlitons, and other squash can’t pollinate mirlitons.
But here’s an easy way to determine the danger of interbreeding with any combination of plants.
We usually use common names for plants, but the key to knowing whether they can interbreed is the scientific name, called the “binomial name,” which consists of two words: genus and species. It is analogous to your personal name; your last name is your genus (family name), and your first name is specifically who you are in the family (specie).
To determine the possibility of interbreeding, simply Google the common name followed by “binomial.” For example, if you Google “mirliton binomial,” your first result is Sechium edule, the binomial name you are looking for. Then Google “Cucuzza binomial” and it will return Lagenaria siceraria. Now you know the genus and species of both.
Mirliton: The Genus: Sechium. The Specie: edule
Cucuzza: The Genus; Lagenaria. The Specie: siceraria
The two vines are in different genus (genera is the plural), and different genera seldom interbreed.
What if you have two plants in the same genus? Then look at the second name, the species. If they are the same species, they can generally cross-pollinate-that’s how botanists define species- any plants that are capable of interbreeding. There are exceptions, but to be safe, don’t plant them together until you contact a plant expert for advice.
Now, practice the method on another plant:
Find the scientific names (binomial names) for mirliton and cucumber. Compare them. Are they the same genus? If not, then it’s safe to plant them together.
( Special thanks to Dr. Joe Willis of the LSU AgCenter for his indispensable contribution to this article)
1. Vineguard double-arched cattle panel trellis. This can be built using two 16′ panels, with the inside panel cut shorter to provide the canopy space between the upper and lower panels.
The same vineguard double-arched cattle panel trellis with plastic added to the top arch to prevent excessive rainfall from saturating the bed soil.
Here’s an idea. Design an arched trellis structure to protect mirlitons from excessive rain, solar radiation, and cold. I call it a Vineguard. It can be used to shunt rain away from the beds, shield the vine from intense heat, and protect it from frost.
One structure–three purposes.
We invite you to design and test the concept. (post your ideas and results on the Facebook group)
The concept is simple: An arching structure that you mount above the trellis, similar to the shade cloth structure that many of you already use–but sloped. During periods of heavy rainfall, place a single sheet of clear 6-mil plastic on top to divert the water away from the bed and prevent waterlogging. The single clear sheet will allow sunlight through and air circulation through the sides. In the summertime, replace it with a shade cloth to protect from the sun. In winter, you cover the entire trellis with plastic and enclose the vine to prevent frost damage.
The Vineguard can be built several ways. If you are already using an arched cattle panel, arch another one a few feet above it. If you’re using a horizontal cattle panel trellis, install a PVC pipe arch overhead that slopes to direct rainfall away from the bed (see photo). Or you can construct a similar pitched wooden frame with a pitched roof.
The Vineguard will work for both raised-bed and ground plantings, but it works especially well against waterlogging in tall raised beds. That’s because raised beds provide more control over soil moisture. Tall raised beds are less likely to wick moisture from the rest of the yard when it becomes saturated.
We will be experimenting with Vineguards this year, and I invite all you Mirliton Wizards out there to create designs that provide the simplest, most effective, and least expensive model.
Special thanks to R. Ranjith at the Nesamony Memorial Christian College for his advice on soil hydrology and managing intense rainfall.
Thanks to Buster Avera for the photo of his shade-cloth arch, which can also serve as a rain guard.
2. Buster Avera’s arched shade cloth structure could also easily double as a rain guard.
3. Corner view of Buster Avera’s arched shade cloth structure.
Although we recommend trellising mirliton vines while they are in 3-gallon containers, some people prefer to prune them back. Pruning is safe and will result in a compact, bushy plant.
The most important point is that when you prune, leave at least three plant nodes above the soil line. Nodes are the small protrusions at the joint of the vine stem that produce branches, tendrils, leaves, and flowers. If you eliminate too many nodes, you can hurt vine growth.
Follow the nodes up the stem and prune anywhere above the third node. A “branching node” is a node where a branch has emerged. Try to leave as many of these branching nodes as possible because they will produce a stronger, bushier plant.
Every part of the plant that you prune is edible. Many people use the shoots and leaves in stir-frys.
Nodes will appear every few inches. Leave at least three nodes when pruning back.
Mimi Noug Prejean demonstrates how to prune a mirliton plant in this 90-second video here.
Michelle’s Glore’s lighted and heated row cover enclosure at night.
Growing mirlitons can be physically challenging for people like me, who have health or age problems that limit our ability to get around. Putting up frost protection can be a real headache. Michelle Impastato Glore invented a solution: She uses lightweight row-cover frost cloths that one person can easily mount and unmount with the aid of bamboo sticks. And her frost-protection enclosure keeps her mirlitons safe even when temperatures drop to 20°!
Most mirliton growers build temporary frost-protection enclosures using 6-mil plastic or Visqueen. Plastic works well, but it can be difficult and unwieldy for some people to manage the constant covering and uncovering of a trellis. A high trellis can be especially challenging for people with smaller stature or older adults (like me) with balance or walking impairments. Instead, Michelle chose to use multiple lightweight fabric row covers and bamboo canes, which makes the task easier.
A single frost cover will not retain enough heat to prevent frost, but multiple ones will. Make sure to layer three frost cloths, as Michelle does, to prevent damage. Additionally, row covers allow you to use clips to more easily secure them to the trellis. She also uses heat lamps and incandescent Christmas lights to heat the enclosure.
Here’s how she removes the frost cloths from the trellis using a bamboo stick.
Here’s a video of her explaining the materials she uses.
Here’s a video of how she disassembles the enclosure.
And here’s a video of the vine the morning after the temperatures were 20℉.
These are the tools for her lightweight frost protection:
Fabric row covers (frost cloths ) 10’x50′:
Fabric row covers.
Fabric Cover Spring Clips: 5” long:
W
Wireless remote thermometer.
The Mirliton.Org Facebook group serves as a market for people to sell or gift mirliton seeds and sprouts. We want to ensure that only viable seeds are transferred so that people are guaranteed a successful growing experience. We don’t want to mandate standards and prefer to make recommendations, with the hope that people will cooperate.
Buying Seeds and Sprouts:
We categorize mirlitons advertised on the Facebook site as either seeds or sprouts. Seeds are defined as the normal unsprouted mirlitons that you use for cooking. In contrast, sprouts are defined as fruit that has begun to sprout— to extrude the soft inner seed through the large end of the fruit. This is commonly referred to as “sticking its tongue out.” The “tongue” is where all the roots and shoots will grow from.
Not all mirliton seeds are viable. They may look like mature, healthy seeds, but vines can bear fruit that lacks the inner soft seed that would produce a new plant. We call this a “parthenocarpic” fruit. It occurs when a female flower is not successfully pollinated and has an unfertilized ovary. The seed will never germinate, and if you get one of these, you will be getting a dud. Only sprouted seeds are viable and will grow into an entire plant.
That’s why we recommend that, if you are selling or buying a seed, use only sprouts — the ones with their tongues sticking out.
A mirliton sprout. The soft inner seed has begun to extrude and is “sticking its tongue out.” This means it is a viable seed and will produce a mirliton vine. (Andres Barcelo photo)
Buying Certified Varieties:
We are the only organization in the U.S.A. that certifies mirlitons as Louisiana heirlooms. We maintain a list here of both named and unnamed varieties, along with their sellers. If you have any questions about whether the variety you are buying is a certified heirloom, contact lance@mirliton.org.
Buying From Garden Stores or Online?
Don’t do it. Garden stores generally refuse to disclose the origin of their sprouts or plants. They’ve been known to sell imported chayote as Louisiana heirlooms. Only buy one if the store provides you with the name of the certified variety and the grower’s name. Online purchases are even riskier.
Here’s a list you can check to determine if the store is selling officially certified heirloom mirltions.
No Guarantees:
If you buy a seed online from the Mirliton.Org Facebook group, the site does not guarantee any claims made by the seller. It is up to the buyer to verify that the seed is viable and a certified heirloom variety. The guarantee rests with the seller.
Michelle Glore’s raised bed with a silver plastic moisture barrier beneath it.
Noah couldn’t do it, nor can we, but Michelle Impastato Glore invented a brilliant idea: use a raised bed with a moisture barrier to overcome a saturated yard.
The Outcome: She planted a new mirliton in September in the raised bed in her water-saturated yard, and four months later, in December, she harvested mirlitons!
The problem with raised beds is that when the soil beneath them becomes saturated, the bed won’t drain. It’s a scientific principle that fluids will always flow from an area of higher pressure to an area of lower pressure until equilibrium is reached. That means that when the garden soil is flooded, the moisture in the raised bed won’t flow downward.
In the past, we recommended drilling holes in the raised bed above the soil line to allow moisture to flow laterally. That works, but Michelle installed a plastic barrier under the raised bed, which accomplishes two things. (1) It prevents ground moisture from leaching upward into the bed when the yard is saturated, and (2) it allows excess bed moisture to flow out through the cracks at the base, where there is no pressure.
If your tall raised bed has horizontal holes and a plastic moisture barrier beneath, it creates two outlets for bed moisture to escape: the horizontal holes and the crack at the base of the bed. The moisture will drain more rapidly, stabilizing soil moisture, which is ideal for mirlitons.
Moreover, the bed does not constantly leech up ground moisture.
If you already have a raised bed, consider switching to a plastic moisture bed now, before you plant. All you have to do is temporarily remove the soil from the bed, install the plastic beneath the bed structure, and then refill the bed. Make sure the plastic extends beyond the bottom edges of the bed structure. If you don’t already have them, drill a few holes in the bed, a few inches from the base, for lateral drainage.
Here’s a video of Michelle’s moisture-protected raised bed and the vine she planted in September that produced only four months later.
Young mirliton sprout removed from the container. The arrow points to the plant radicle (rooting organ)
The photo shows that although the root radicles (white, bumpy protuberances at the top) are pointing upward, yet the roots themselves have begun to grow downward into the soil. The radicle is the embryonic root of the plant, and in this case, even though it was planted mostly above the soil line, it immediately sent roots downward to absorb water and nutrients from the soil. So even if you plant the seed upside down, the roots know which way to grow. That’s why mirliton sprouts generally succeed, regardless of whether they are planted “large end up” or “large end down.”