by Lance Hill | Jul 30, 2016 | Mirliton
First-year plants can sometimes succumb to intensive heat in the summer, especially in July and August. Mirlitons are vigorous vegetative growers but sometimes get ahead of root-growth necessary to uptake moisture. Keep in mind that most garden vegetables do not have the exposure to heat and water-loss that mirlitons have: one vine, even at this early stage of growth, can have hundreds of square feet of leaf space. Roots have to supply the these leaves with a tremendous amount of water since water evaporation, called transpiration, is an integral part of photosynthesis and leaf helps regulate plant temperature reduce internal heat. Most mirliton water uptake occurs at night, so watering the leaves directly–giving them a “good bath”–does not provide much water to the plant.
A plant that exhibits leaf wilting and drooping in the last afternoon heat can be a sign of dehydration. First-year plants tend to wilt occasionally during the heat of the day and then regain leaf shape in the evening. As long as the plant has adequate moisture (test the soil around the base of the plant) and is not waterlogged (too much water), then a little wilting is not a problem, especially if it rapidly regains shape as temperatures cool. But if your plant is properly watered and is wilting extensively during the day, consider protecting it with a standard garden shade cloth. You can but these by the roll or by the yard at most big-box stores: for gardening purposes, these will be rated at blocking out from 60% to 70% of the sun, while allowing water to pass through and air to circulate.
Some of our growers have experimented with shade systems. Bernardez Marcus, a member of the Capital Area Technical College in Baton Rouge, directs our heirloom mirliton project at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Marcus reports that they were losing plants to the heat this summer, but when they covered their horizontal trellis with shade cloth, the plants quickly began to flourish. How long you need to cover the plant depends on how well it responds to the shade covering–in the long run the plant will need more sun than the shade cloth permits during long-term use. But it is safe to say that the plant will no longer need the protection in September. Shade cloths absorb heat so keep the cloth a few inches above the plant if possible. In this post, I have included a photo of a vertical shade that I used one year on a young plant.
So if you are planting in full sun, consider shade cloth for first-year plants. ( A special thanks to Marcus and the inmates at Angola who developed and tested this technique).
by Lance Hill | Aug 28, 2013 | Mirliton
We are sorry to learn of the passing of Ishreal Thibodeaux who for more than forty years preserved the rare pure-white mirliton that we named in his honor. Mr. Thibodeaux donated many seed to the Mirlitons.Org project to ensure that his variety would survive. He would be pleased to learn that several “Ishreal Thibodeaux” mirliton variety plants are now thriving. Here is his obituary and below are two photographs that I took during my last visit: once includes an enlarged photo of the Thibodeaux fruit which he framed and proudly hung in his house.
by Lance Hill | Aug 5, 2013 | Mirliton
Here are some photos of Kevin Boutte’s mirliton vines in the Teche area of Louisiana
by Lance Hill | Jul 5, 2013 | Mirliton
Jeanette Bell is doing some remarkable work on bringing fresh food to inner-city neighborhoods in New Orleans. I first learned about her work from this short video about her mirliton vine in her Fleur d’Eden on Baronne street in New Orleans. It turns out that she received her mother plant from Pam Broom last year (see below), which means that it was the “Joseph Boudreaux” Louisiana heirloom variety that we provided to Pam two years ago. Jeannette distributed 70 plants from her mother plant last year, so the Boudreaux variety in expanding exponentially in New Orleans! Jeannette also runs the Garden On Mars project that instructs people how to convert abandoned lots into urban gardens. Here is a recent article on Jeanette’s work.
Jeannette Bell
by Lance Hill | May 26, 2012 | Mirliton
(Joseph Boudreaux with his home-grown mirliton variety)
Part of the inspiration for forming Mirliton.Org was the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans the the Louisiana coastal parishes. Mirliton plants will die if the roots are submerged in water for more than 48 hours: The Katrina flood destroyed all the vines in flooded areas in New Orleans and some coastal parishes.
To renew the tradition of backyard mirliton growing, we had to find traditional heirloom mirliton varieties grown outside New Orleans. The mirlitons sold commercially in grocery stores (as Chayote) could not be used as seed: they are largely imported from high altitude sites in Costa Rica and Mexico and although they will sprout and grow a few stems, like many high-altitude plants, they normally succumb to our unique growing environment and plant diseases.
Since 2007, we have searched for growers of what we call traditional “Louisiana heirloom mirlitons” by advertising in the Louisiana Department of Agriculture publication “Market Bulletin” and contacting Parish (county) Agricultural Extension Service staff–thanks to the assistance of the Louisiana State University extension service. We also simply drove the roads along the bayous where mirlitons were traditionally grown on bayou banks (that’s how we found the Mister Rock mirliton variety).
We eventually found growers who had been growing the same variety for decades, although they are few and far between and a disappearing breed. With the discovery of these growers–most of them older gardeners in their eighties who were upholding a family tradition of mirliton growing, we knew now that the traditional locally-grown varieties would once again thrive in New Orleans and rest of the state.
These growers would donate seed mirlitons to re-seed New Orleans and, as the demand grew, we would also buy from growers and give away the seed as sprouts and plants. As word spread of our project (which began under the name “Adopt-A–Mirliton”), we ended up distributing seed throughout Louisiana, Texas, Mississipi, and Alabama. We decided to feature some of the success stories on this blog from time to time.
In 2010 a reader of the Market Bulletin called me and said he knew of a grower in Broussard, Louisiana who had several vines of the same variety that he had been growing for decades. I visited Joseph Boudreaux in Broussard and he donated a few of his mirlitons and I purchased several more. Later, after an early freeze, he donated a few dozen freeze-damaged fruit that he assured us would germinate and grow: he was right.
We always name the variety after the person we first found growing it so that we can track the variety’s progress as we distribute it throughout the region; heirloom varieties have different qualities that we are testing for, such as fruiting habits and disease resistance. Naming the variety also allows us to find new growers who will “adopt” a specific variety and commit to growing it so that we will always have a reliable seed source and can preserve the genetic diversity of the locally grown varieties.
In 2011, Mirliton.Org donated three container plants of the Joseph Boudreaux variety to Sun Harvest Garden in New Orleans on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. A small Central City community garden built on a cleared lot, Sun Harvest is run by Pam Broom, a long-time community activist and urban farming advocate. Planted in the spring of 2011, the vine produced a small crop later that fall. During the warm winter of 2012 (we never got a frost in central New Orleans), Pam harvested even more fruit and the plant is still producing during the traditional spring crop cycle.
Pam has distributed some of the the new fruit as seed to other gardeners in the area and her vine is, as mirlitons are inclined to do, rapidly taking over more of her garden. But she’s happy with the prolific new arrival. “One of the things that inspires me most about receiving mirliton plants from Mr. Joseph Boudreaux,” says Pam, “is that thanks to him, I am experiencing growing a beautiful, sweet and delicious variety in the heart of the City of New Orleans.”
From Broussard to New Orleans: mirlitons are making a comeback thanks to people who appreciate this iconic Louisiana plant.
Pam Broom with her Joseph Boudreaux mirliton variety vine at the Sun Harvest Garden in New Orleans
Lance Hill
Mirliton.org
by Lance Hill | May 7, 2012 | Mirliton
The hot and rainy weather has brought out the annual anthracnose disease for mirlitons. See the last summer’s blog entry here on this disease (I have added a photograph and link to more photos) which discusses how to recognize the different signs of powdery mildew and anthracnose. The growers guide on the web site has additional information. Anthracnose infects almost all mirliton plants, especially in their first year, but depending on proper care and hopefully a low rate of evening rain showers, the disease will only affect a few stems and when those die, new stems will return.
Mirliton leaf infected with anthracnose plant disease. Note different browning pattern and the distinctive “shot hole” in the middle of the brown tissue, which does not occur with powdery mildew (anthracnose, unlike powdery mildew, can live on dead plant tissue and literally “eat a hole” through the plant)
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