Mirliton How-To Tips
Search tips by keyword:
Preparing Your Mirliton Planting Site
- Select a plant site. The most important thing to keep in mind is that water-saturated soil can drown a young mirliton. Even if your plant survives intense rains, excessive soil moisture later in the summer will stress the plant leading to anthracnose. Choose the best well-drained site on your property–away from roof run-off and preferably near a tree drip line. The vine does not have to initially be in full sun because mirlitons are sun-seekers and will follow a trellis to available sunlight. Ensure you have sufficient space for an overhead or vertical trellis.
- Make a bed or a pit. Mirlitons thrive in loamy, well-drained soil. If you have that, prepare a bed at least 10′ x 10′ which will allow for an overhead trellis that can double as an enclosure for frost protection. Till the soil and add amendments if necessary (if you are using a raised bed, tilling the soil beneath is imperative to ensure bed drainage). But most growers are not fortunate to have good soil and certainly don’t want to waste a $10 seed on a $1 hole. In that case, I recommend a planting technique taught to me by Ishreal Thibodeaux of Opelousas: the pit method. It has been successfully used around the world wherever gardeners have clay or any poor soils. With this pit method, you essentially build a container below ground and fill it with your preferred soil mixture, just as you would for house plants. First, dig a pit 2′ x 2’ x 18” deep. Then fill it with a mix of equal parts: (1) the topsoil you removed from the hole, (2) commercial garden soil, (3) compost, and (4) manure (rabbit, if available). The wider the pit, the better the vine will do. Make enough mixture to also build the hill on top (below). If you choose to simply fill the pit with commercial garden or potting soil, make sure to blend it together with the topsoil that you removed (piling garden soil into the hole can create a “water barrier” where the ground soil cannot absorb excess moisture).
- Build a hill. Make a 2’ x 2’ hill on top of the pit using the same mix. Transplant your mirliton into that in late March after the normal last frost date and add a wire cylinder trellis so the vine can climb to the overhead trellis.
- Harden off the transplant: If you are planting a container plant that you have had inside or in a shaded area, ensure you place it in full sun for a few hours a day for five days before transplanting it into the ground. Sudden exposure to a full day of direct sunlight can burn the plant.
- Planting a Sprout? If you decide to directly plant the sprout instead of a containerized plant, skirt the surface and initial trellis with wire cloth to protect it from squirrels:
Steel wire squirrel protection. Wire mesh can also be used with ground plantings to prevent rodents from digging up the vine.
- Assemble your defense force. Prepare now for rain, pests, and diseases. We suggest you buy a: (1) rain gauge, (2) a soil sampler for testing soil moisture (3) potassium bicarbonate for powdery mildew, (4) BT for preventative management of vine borers, (5) sevin for preventative management of stink bugs, and (6) a shade cloth for the first two months of the plant.
Links:
Soil Sampler for Testing Soil Moisture
Potassium bicarbonate
How To Water A New Mirliton Seed
The video at the bottom of this post explains in 60 seconds the simple bamboo skewer stick soil moisture technique that will prevent you from drowning your young mirliton.
If you get a mirliton sprout and it’s too early to ground-plant it, we recommend that you plant it in a 3-5 gallon container or grow bag filled with potting soil. It can remain in the container for more than a year and can be pruned back if necessary. Watering is the main problem you may encounter. The mirliton needs very little water the first several weeks because it comes with its own water source–the fruit. You should initially thoroughly water it and leave it alone for a few weeks so you don’t drown the roots. The only way the container will lose water is through evapotranspiration—by natural evaporation of the soil and loss of small amounts of water through the leaves (transpiration).
The best way to check the soil moisture in a 3-gallon container is the bamboo skewer stick test. It works better than any expensive electronic tester. Insert and withdraw the skewer quickly and visually examine it. It will provide you with a graduated reading–each particle of soil represents the available moisture at that specific level. The bottom of the stake will show the moisture at the deepest level. If a few soil particles adhere to the skewer, that means they are moist, which means you have good soil moisture. If it comes out clean and dry, it needs water. If it comes out smeared and muddy, that’s too much moisture. After visually examining it, run the skewer between two fingers to feel the moisture at the different levels. You will develop a good sense of when it’s not drenched or dehydrated.
Then, leave the stick out to dry for the next test.
Using this “sight and feel” method is similar to the one that soil labs use to assess clay content for a soil sample–they roll the soil between their fingers and use their senses to judge the clay content. We don’t advise that people use the knuckle method, where you insert a finger into the soil. That will tell you if the top inch of soil is moist but not if the rest of the container is drenched.
When you move the plant outside, it may lose moisture and need to me monitored more regularly. Here’s the quick and simple video: bit.ly/3w6vJ8o
In addition, you can use the skewers to help peel the mirliton! View the 60-second tutorial here.
How To Grow A New Mirliton Seed
Sprouted Mirliton
If you have just harvested or obtained a new seed, you have two options: (1) store it as a sprout for several months, or (2) overwinter it in a 3-gallon container.
To store it as a sprout, place it in a cool, dark location in a brown paper bag, and it will sprout and remain viable for several months. You could then plant it in the ground in March.
However, we recommend that you get the plant growing in a container as soon as possible, because that will create a strong root ball for transplanting in March and produce a spring crop! To achieve a spring harvest and a strong plant going into the next summer, you will need to sprout the seed and immediately plant it in a 3-gallon container.
Here are the steps:
1. Mirlitons should be sprouted (germinated) before planting. If your mirliton has not sprouted, (fig. 1) place it horizontally on top of the refrigerator– the warmest part of your house. If it does not sprout within two weeks, you should speed up the process by “incubating” the sprout (explained here)
Fig. 1. Unsprouted mirlitons.
2. If your mirliton has already begun to sprout (tongue sticking out) (fig. 2), you are ready to overwinter it to help it develop a root ball.
Fig. 2. Sprout first emerges (above) and shoots extending (below). These are ready to plant.
3. Over-wintering: Once your mirliton is sprouted, you plant the whole fruit at a 45-degree angle about 2/3 of the way down with the sprouting end down in a 3-gallon plastic or cloth container filled with good potting soil (fig. 3). Water thoroughly the first time. Mirlitons don’t need much water during the overwintering. Here’s how to use a bamboo skewer to test soil moisture. Or you lift the container slightly every few days to gauge if the soil is drying out, and only water if it is noticeably light. David Hubbell has an excellent video on overwintering a mirliton here.
Fig. 3. Sprout planted “sprouting end down” at a 45-degree angle with about 2/3 underground in a 3-gallon container.
4. Trellising: Use a 24” – 36″ tomato cage as a trellis. Let it climb the cage, but you can safely prune it back to keep it compact—a plant in a 3-gallon container can last for up to a year (see diagram below). Overwinter it inside in a sunny area. Or, if the weather permits, you can keep it outside in full sun and bring it in when there is a risk of frost or freeze. You can also store it inside using grow lights (natural light or a full-spectrum grow light set to sunrise and sunset). The goal is to develop a good root ball. When you transplant it into the ground in the spring, you can unwind the vine from the tomato cage and attach the canopy to your garden trellis (see the images below).
Mirlitons trellised on tomato cages.
If you choose to prune the plant to keep it compact — rather than trellis it — you can cut back the top growth, but leave at least three nodes with shoots above the soil line.
5. Give the container plant as much sun as possible, preferably outside, and bring it in when temperatures drop below 42 °. If you have rodent problems, protect it with a wire cage:
Steel wire squirrel protection. Make the mesh guard at least 3′ high to protect new growth. Wire mesh can also be used with ground plantings to prevent rodents from digging up the vine.
6. Transplanting: If you don’t want a spring crop, transplant your container plant into your ground site or raised bed in April after the threat of frost. If you want a spring crop, you need to transplant in the first week of March. Be prepared to cover it with a bucket or tarp in case of a frost. Harden it off for a few days before transplanting into full sun. See the Quick Guide for instructions on building a grow site and general procedures for watering, fertilization, shading, and plant pests and diseases. Join the national mirliton gardeners Facebook Group to post questions and follow the progress of other Mirliton gardeners here.
Well-developed root ball on a 3-gallon plant ready to transplant into the ground.
Squirrel Repeller That Works
Meet The Squirrelator
Well, it doesn’t eliminate them, but it does scare them off, and anyone who has ever grown mirlitons knows that squirrels eat the vine endings and steal the fruit. What to do? A wise old extension agent in Mississippi once said, “If there are 100 cures for something, probably none of them work.” I tried a 100 for squirrels: CDs, noise repellers, and cayenne on the bird seed (the Cajun squirrels loved it). None of them worked. This motion-activated sprinkler shoots a short burst of water in an arc over your vine.
David Hubbell tested it for the last two years– complete with a game camera that he used to monitor it. The thing works. It is based on the simple principle: Did you ever see a squirrel dancing in the rain?
They work for other crops and will also keep your neighbors from pilfering your garden at night.
It’s available at most online stores, but here’s the Amazon link.
(If you are trying to protect a container plant or a new small plant, a wire mesh guard will also work.)
Wire mesh guard for protection against squirrels.
Sprinklers Are Effective Frost Protection for Mirlitons
Mirliton vine the day after a frost that was protected with a rotary sprinkler. The vine is healthy and ready to produce.
A damaged portion of the same vine that was beyond the reach of the sprinkler.
No one wants to nurse a mirliton for months through droughts, floods, and hurricanes, just to have Jack Frost arrive and kill all your flowers before they can fruit. Sprinklers are the most effective, simplest, and least expensive way to protect mirlitons from an early frost. Moreover, hot weather is the ideal time to set up your sprinkler and adjust it because you don’t want to be running around getting soaked in freezing weather.
Horticulturalists in the South seldom recommend sprinklers because most home gardeners grow soft-tissue vegetables that ripen long beroe the threat of fall frost. But we can find excellent advice from Canadian experts who have perfected the sprinkler systems to protect strawberries from early Sring frosts. We used their experience to design a simple and effective defense against temperatures down to 38 degrees in the fall.
Spraying water on a plant to warm it up seems counter-intuitive, but it works because of a simple principle; when water evaporates from the leaves, it transfers heat into the plant. And when changes to ice on the surface of a plant, it will add heat to that plant. Frankly, the science baffles me, but if you want to know more about it, click here for the Canadian study. For our purposes, the sprinkler frost-defense steps are simple:
Sprinkler Set Up:
1. Place a rotary sprinkler with a metal spike securely on the ground and connect a garden hose to it.
2. Turn the hose on and adjust the sprinkler and mount so that the stream covers the entire vine. Any sprinkler will do, but it’s best to use an impulse sprinkler that can spray a 180-degree arc so you can cover the entire vine. You may have to angle it up.
3. Secure the metal spike so that it does not move when the water is left on for several hours.
When and How to Use the Sprinkler system:
1. Watch the temperature forecast. If the temperature is predicted to go below 38 degrees that night, turn the sprinkler on at sunset and make sure it covers the entire vine.
2. Normally, the coldest part of the night is 4:00-6:00 a.m, so you can turn off the sprinkler after sunrise if the forecast is for temperatures above 40 degrees during the day.
That’s it. We have tested this system on mirlitons for over 10 years and every time it has worked and saved the vines. In 2012, Leo Jones in Harvey, Louisiana used the sprinkler for only part of his vine– it lived while the rest of the vine died (photo above). In 2019, Renee Lapelrolie also used sprinkler heads on only part of her vine, and again, only the protected portion survived (photo below). Not only can the sprinkler protect the vine in the fall, but during a mild winter, it can be used instead to keep the vine alive for a Spring crop.
Buying a sprinkler:
The Rain Bird impulse sprinkler is the best sprinkler head. You can buy it with the reinforced stake and it can cover a vine 40 feet long. There are other brands available, but the Rain Bird is the only one I have had experience with.
Rain Bird Sprinkler Head With Metal Spike Base click here.
How to Adjust Rain Bird click here.
Canadian strawberry frost-protection instruction publication, click here.
Rene Laperolie’s mirliton vine after the 2019 frost. In the foreground, the sprinkler protected the vine. In the background, the unprotected vine was damaged.
Managing Vine Borers in Mirlitons (chayote)
I have researched how to manage squash vine borers and there is remarkably little scientific research that will help the home gardener. Big commercial growers use a chemical drench, but that’s no help for organic gardeners. I have heard of wrapping the base of plants with aluminum foil. Maybe that works, but I have not found any rigorously controlled studies of the methods.
Physical barriers and BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) appear to be the most effective management methods. Barriers such as row covers in the spring will help prevent the moths from laying eggs. Regular foliar spraying of BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) appears to be the most effective way to manage squash vine borers. There is persuasive research that BT works on cucurbits like mirlitons (chayote). Start spraying the vines early in the spring and continue throughout the season (don’t mix with oils because they can kill the vine in hot weather).
Some people inject the BT into the vine with syringes, but this will not work because larvae don’t consume BT and it will only kill the larvae if it reaches their gut.
Click here for a short overview of vine borers and how to manage them.
Click here for the best article I found on BT for managing vine borers.
Click here to read about how it is safe for humans to use on crops.
How to Identify and Control Leaffooted Stink Bugs on Mirlitons (chayote)
Leaffooted stink bugs have invaded our mirliton gardens and orchards. They feed on flowers and fruit, killing flowers and injecting enzymes and diseases into the fruits that ruin the flavors or bruise them. And, yes, they stink.
There are several leaffooted stink bug species in the Gulf Coast South, but the principal culprit is a new arrival Leptoglossus zonatus (Dallas), widely known as the “western leaffooted bug”. They are with us year-round and overwinter in weeds and tree bark. They emerge in the spring as “nymphs” (immature bugs) and go through five stages called instars. We will concentrate on two of the stages that gardeners are most likely to see on their vines: nymphs and mature bugs.
How to Identify:
Identifying leaffooted bugs is tricky since they look almost identical to assassin bugs, which are beneficial insects that eat bad bugs and don’t damage plants. Because they are physically similar, sometimes people try to distinguish them based on the different markings of the two species. That will work for mature stink bugs, but markings are not always useful for nymphs because they don’t appear in all instars. For example, the characteristic leaf-like “flared” back legs don’t appear in all stages of a leaffooted bug’s life (see the two photos below of nymphs with no flared legs on a mirliton fruit and flowers). A simpler and more reliable way to identify stink bugs is by behavior:
Nymph stage: For most of the growing season, stink bug nymphs are easily identified by their aggregating (swarming) behavior. They like to aggregate into small gangs and search for young flowers and immature fruit. In contrast, assassin bugs are solitary hunters, even as nymphs, and won’t be found in gangs. So don’t t worry about markings; if they behave like a gang, then they are stink bugs. You can control them at this early stage with regular spraying throughout the growing season with insecticidal soap or organic pesticides such as Bee Safe Organicide that won’t harm bees.
Immature nymph leaffooted bugs in characteristic swarming behavior. Note that at this stage, they don’t have the flared back legs.
Stink bug nymph feeding on immature flowers (also, no flared back legs)
Stink bug damage to young mirliton fruit. Note exudate emerging on top right in a bubble.
Mature stage. Adults can’t be sprayed away; they have a hard exoskeletal structure that protects them from topical insecticides. They are also solitary foragers like assassin bugs, but they are easily identified because they are vegetarians. In contrast, assassin bugs only eat other bugs while leaffooted bugs feed on flowers and fruits. They have to be removed by hand by picking them off by hand, sucking them up with a portable vacuum, or catching them with a butterfly net.
I prefer the hand vacuum (with a homemade 1/2 inch diameter PVC extension—see below) because stink bugs are highly aware and will instantly dash away at the sight of a large extension. Plus, you are less likely to damage flowers. The contents of the vacuum can be emptied into a pail of water with insecticide. Leaffooted bugs and assassin bugs are quick and elusive and difficult to identify as adults. If you accidentally removed an assassin bug, it will not hurt the species since they forage everywhere, unlike leaffooted bugs that target your vegetables and fruits.
Mature leaffooted bug. Note white mark across the back and the well-developed flared “leaves” on the back legs.
Monitor For Stinkbugs Daily:
The key to managing pests is knowing which ones are on your vine because early intervention is critical. Closely scout your vine every day, top and bottoms of leaves, and use sticky yellow insect traps to collect specimens. Click here for sticky traps.
Click here for an excellent recently updated fact sheet on Leptoglossus zonatus (Dallas)
The Dewalt 20v. portable vacuum has the power to vacuum up large bugs and can be used for household and automotive cleaning. An accessory kit is available and that will allow you to fit it with a 1/2-inch PVC pipe extension.
Identifying and Contolling Powdery Mildew in Mirlitons
Powdery Mildew on a leaf in the early stages of the infection. The best time to diagnose powdery mildew is in the early stage on mostly green leaves. It starts as irregular pale yellow blotches that combine until the whole leaf is yellow.
Powdery mildew is a troublesome plant disease, but thankfully, it is never lethal. It’s largely a Spring disease because it thrives in cool, damp weather, so it’s the first disease you will see in the mirliton growth cycle. The good news is that there’s an effective organic fungicide that manages the disease.
The signs of powdery mildew on mirlitons are not the same as on most other plants. Gardeners are often advised to look for a white powder on the leaf surface. But that seldom appears on mirliton leaves–probably because the spring rains wash off the leaves. The most obvious signs will be yellowing, dead leaves, and by that time, the infection will have advanced. And yellowing leaves can also be caused by overwatering.
So, what’s the best way to spot the disease? The most accurate way to identify powdery mildew in its early stages is to examine the seemingly healthy green leaves near yellowing ones. The early signs of mildew are irregular, faded yellow blotches like those in the photo above. That is the fungus forming little colonies that will eventually turn into bright yellow leaves.
If you find signs of the disease, there is a highly effective organic fungicide that can control it: potassium bicarbonate. It can completely eradicate the disease in three weeks and works on downy mildew as well.
We recommend L.D. Carlson’s potassium bicarbonate because the manufacturer has verified with a Certificate of Authority (COA) that it is at least 99.5% pure. It’s generally sold in one-pound quantities, which is more than you will need, but it has a long shelf life, and you can share it with other growers. Click here to order online.
L.D. Carlson’s potassium bicarbonate.
If you are using a 99.5% pure potassium bicarbonate product, mix one tablespoon with a gallon of water and shake vigorously. Then spray only in the evening and thoroughly wet the tops and bottoms of all leaves. Apply once a week for three weeks until there are no signs of early infection (faded yellow blotches on green leaves).
For a more thorough article on powdery mildew and mirlitons, see my paper here.
Making Spring Mirlitons Sprout
Sprouting mirliton.
We occasionally get a Spring mirliton crop and decide to gift or sell them to others to grow. You could plant them in small containers and sell them that way, but that would mean that potential growers would have to transplant them into the ground during the full heat of the summer. That would be risky. That’s why we recommend that growers sell their fruit as sprouts as soon as possible after picking them. Sprouts can be safely planted in May-June with a simple shade technique (click here). So how do you expedite sprouting?
Mirlitons sprout (germinate) in response to warm weather. Joseph Boudreaux taught me the simple technique for incubating mirlitons in May: Place them in a warm place outside and they’ll sprout within 10-14 days. It’s best to place them away from the direct sun and inside a container such as a milk crate where varmints can’t get them (squirrels, possums, and rats). As soon as they begin to sprout, you can assure people that they are viable seeds and ready to plant.
How To Read Mirliton Leaves for Vine Watering Needs
Guttation forming on leaf tips and edges
Your mirliton will tell you every morning how much water its roots are accessing. It is called “guttation.” If there is more than adequate soil moisture available at night, mirlitons will send the excess to the leaves where it will be visible in large droplets on the margins of the leaves. The water exudes from glands at the tip of the leaves. Guttation means the plant has more than enough water; if you don’t see guttation for several days, then it’s probably time to water. Click here for a link to instructional photos of guttation and how to read it (click on each photo for explanations).