by Lance Hill | May 15, 2026 | How To, Mirliton
Michelle Impastato Glore takes a soil sample from her raised bed.
If you felt feverish and wanted to check your temperature, you wouldn’t guess; you would get a thermometer and take your temperature. Your garden soil is no different, and we now have a way to determine exactly how much soil moisture your mirliton has available: the soil sampler.
The soil sampler is the simplest way to see how much moisture your mirliton roots are getting. It’s the quickest and most inexpensive way to determine if you have overwatered or underwatered your vine. Knowing what is happening several inches below the surface is even more important during droughts — many growers lost their vines during the heatwaves in 2023 and 2024 because the soil was starved of moisture.
The “knuckle” method of sticking your finger into the soil only tells you what the soil moisture is near the surface; that method does not work with mirlitons because the roots extend downward 8″. Electric meters are also ineffective because they measure electrical conductivity–not soil moisture. The only way to know the available soil moisture beneath your mirliton is to see and feel it, and that’s exactly what a soil sampler lets you do. Mirliton growers in Brazil have used this method for years.
Michelle Impastato Glore demonstrates how easy it is to take a sample and check moisture levels at all root zone levels. First, insert the sampler, twist 180°, and pull a core sample. Then, examine the soil by pressing down on it in the sampler at intervals of about every inch. Feel for moisture and how it compresses. That will indicate the amount of moisture present at each level. If it’s bone-dry and crumbly, it needs more water. If it’s muddy–it has too much. After a while, you will be able to easily take a reading by touch and sight. The soil will generally be moist at the surface, and it should even out as you go down about 8 inches.
See how Michelle does here
Buy a soil sampler here.
by Lance Hill | Apr 28, 2026 | How To, Mirliton, Uncategorized
Michelle Impastato Glore’s 2026 Spring Mirlitons
We’ve made an important discovery that may change how we grow mirlitons in the U.S.A.
I say “we” because it was the observations made by growers in the Mirliton Facebook group that sparked my interest in why spring mirlitons were flowering females long before males–the exact opposite of the fall flowering sequence. And the reason is that one of the best ways to consistently harvest amid radically changing weather patterns is to focus on getting a spring crop. The fall crop is bedeviled by summer anthracnose epidemics, heat waves, heat domes, droughts, and then fall hurricanes and near-miss traumatic winds. The spring is not.
And here’s why.
The reason mirltons tend to produce females (pistillates) first in the spring is cool weather. This tendency for cool weather to produce female blooms earlier has long been observed in other cucurbits such as cucumber, melon, and squash, and we used that insight to extrapolate that mirlitons were doing the same. All mirliton flowers originate at the axil where the buds emerge. They can turn into a male or female flower. While initial flowering is stimulated by daylight length, the sex of the flower depends on cool night temperature and light intensity. All these factors combine to release hormones that determine whether a floral bud becomes a boy (staminate) or a girl (pistillate). That explains how the cool nights, short days, and lower light in the spring generally accelerate the appearance of females first.
That’s good news because it means that spring flowering and fruiting occur long before the summer heatwaves, droughts, the anthracnose epidemic, and fall hurricanes.
The spring may be your best bet for a crop–not your only crop–but your best bet for at least one crop.
So, how can we take advantage of this discovery?
- If you are starting with a sprout, container plant it as soon as possible in the fall in a 3-gallon container so the biological clock starts ticking. We know that when a sprout has been in the soil–any soil–it will flower and fruit within 110-120 days. So if it is transplanted in the first week of March, it will have time to develop a good canopy and flower lots of females during the ideal spring weather. Always overwinter in containers, then plant in the first week of March. (You can run out and tarp it in the event of a frost)
- If you have an established vine, don’t cut it back in the fall. If you cut back your vine at the end of the fall, you are eliminating your chances for a crop during the safest growing season of the next year—the spring. Frost-protect it through the fall and winter so it emerges with a large canopy that can host hundreds of female flowers in spring. That canopy will receive the full benefit of the cool temperatures during January-April that trigger female flowering. Growers who tent and heat their vines will be blessed with a sure-fire spring crop. And if all things go well in the summer, you will also get a fall crop — that’s just a bonus crop.
- Freeze the male pollen. Males tend to arrive late in the spring, long after the females appear, and this can be a temporary problem because there’s no one to pollinate the females. But we know that Mirliton pollen can be frozen and is viable for at least a year. You can collect male pollen the previous fall, freeze it, and then hand-pollinate the females in the spring. We are working out the specifics of freezing pollen, and we will post the instructions separately–but it’s easy.
So Spring Up to Success Through Science!
by Lance Hill | Mar 20, 2026 | How To, Mirliton
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℉
by Lance Hill | Mar 14, 2026 | How To, Mirliton
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.
by Lance Hill | Mar 8, 2026 | How To, Mirliton, Uncategorized
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.
by Lance Hill | Mar 8, 2026 | How To, Mirliton, Uncategorized
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)
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