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.”

Ants over the mirliton flower

There’s a popular myth going around that spraying sugar water on your mirliton vines will attract pollinators.  Not only won’t sugar water attract pollinators, but it may also damage your vine.

The main pollinators for mirlitons are bees and wasps.  Sugar mainly attracts ants, not bees, and ants are poor pollinators for mirlitons. Here’s why:

• Physical characteristics: Unlike bees, ants have smooth bodies that don’t retain and transfer pollen as well as bees.
• Chemical defenses: Many ant species secrete a natural antibiotic on their bodies to protect against bacteria and fungi. This substance can also destroy pollen grains, making successful pollination less likely.
• Nectar robbing: Ants often act as nectar robbers, consuming nectar from the flowers without effectively transferring pollen from the male to the female flower’s reproductive parts.

Moreover, spraying sugar water on mirliton vines can actually damage them by promoting mold and bacterial growth.

If you don’t see bees and wasps, which are effective pollinators, hand-pollinate instead of spraying sugar water on it

Here’s an academic article on chayote (mirliton) pollinators in Mexico

Extend Your Harvest Season: Protect Your Mirliton Vine on Frost Nights.

The old tradition of cutting back your mirliton vine in November was based on old weather patterns. The weather is changing, and we need to change with it.  Intensive summer rains,  fall heatwaves, and droughts have delayed flowering and fruiting. As soon as the vines start to fruit,  a frost comes along and wipes out the vine. You don’t have to let that happen.  With a little preparation, you can beat the frost and harvest fruit all the way through December. 

In horticulture, this is known as extending the season, which involves using techniques to prolong the growing season beyond its natural limits. In 2024, several people used tenting and heating methods that allowed vines to produce fruit all the way through December. 

All that it takes to protect your vine from an early frost is to temporarily tent your vine with a FEMA tarp or a clear plastic sheet. Secure the bottom of the cover with weights to trap the ground heat and prevent the cover from blowing off. That will trap enough ground heat to prevent most frost damage.

If you use a tarp, you will need to take it down the next day when the temperature warms up–the vine needs sunlight. Clear plastic is much better because you can leave it up for a day or two, but loosen the bottom so that airflow is maintained and the vine doesn’t overheat. Keep the ground below the vine clear of debris and moist to enable the soil to absorb daytime heat, which will radiate into the tent at night.

This tenting technique requires some extra effort — watching the weather forecast and putting up and taking down the cover — but it will extend the harvest season by several weeks.

We can get a damaging frost anytime the temperature is forecast to fall below 42°. So use that as a sign to cover the vine.

Tarps and 6-mil plastic will trap enough ground heat to protect a vine from frost at temperatures in the low 30s. Make sure you seal the bottom with bricks to keep the wind out and the heat in. If you add a small space heater on nights, it will protect the vine at temperatures below 32 degrees, and you can probably harvest fruit in January–and have a vine with a full canopy ready for a spring harvest.

Here are the tools to use to extend the growing season. Buy them now so you will be prepared:

6-mil plastic sheeting
Portable Heater (electric, propane, or heat lamp)

A  remote thermometer is not absolutely necessary, but it can be useful for monitoring the temperature inside the tent. 

Deb Sepulveda’s tented vine

Nancy Wolfe’s camping tent enclosure.

Paige Dyer’s 6-mil plastic tent.

Lee Segrura’s tented vine with pipe frame.

Melissa Minevielle’s tented vine with heater.

Walter Livaudais’s tarp frost cover.

John Dauzat’s Tent of pipe frame. He encloses the entire vine and heats it.