Good To Grow

Here we go again!

I convinced a very nice lady from Louisiana to mail four mirlitons to me in Albuquerque a few weeks ago. They arrived with roots and sprouts!

As many of you know, I’ve been trying to grow Chayote squash for years – always unsuccessfully. Then a couple of years ago, I was in touch with a professor in Louisiana who told me I’d never be able to grow the store-bought Chayotes because the growing conditions where they originated was far too different, the plants couldn’t handle it. But he thought mirlitons would grow in the Southwest. That’s basically the same summer squash as Chayote but from Louisiana. He also taught me that I’d been growing them upside down all along, haha!

Why do I want to grow Chayotes? Originally because they’re delicious, packed with more vitamins than ordinary squash, and they hold their shape in stews like calabacitas. But nowadays, it’s more about the challenge. I’m irritated at my string of failures and am determined to be successful one day.

In January 2024, I got my hands on a mirliton and it was growing beautifully. Until I decided (rather abruptly) to move from Arizona back to New Mexico at the end of April. I brought the plant with me but sadly, the shock of an eight-hour car ride combined with a lack of irrigation once I got here doomed its success. A crushing blow at the time but I rebounded enough to start anew in 2025.

There was a bit of a lag between when the mirlitons arrived and when I got them into their forever homes. The roots on three of them got a little crispy but I’m hoping they’ll still be ok. The main reason I’m not worried about them is that the stems can also sprout roots when they touch soil so there should be a continuous supply of new roots. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway!!!

The reason there was a lag before I could get them planted was because I needed containers, I needed soil, I needed a spot for them to grow on my tiny patio.

I decided to put two in the container that will get the most sun. This one:

Planted correctly this time! In my previous attempts at growing, I had been positioning them with the sprouts facing up, but in reality, the sprouts and roots come out of the same place, the bottom. You plant the whole squash, leaving the top exposed, as the sprouts get their nutrients as the “mother fruit” naturally dies.

If it gets too hot for the plants this summer, I’ll rig some sort of shade cloth.

Another container faces east so it’ll have significant shade in those hot summer afternoons.

Cute little sprouts!

For the fourth mirliton, I chose the ground, along a south facing wall, where it will compete with morning glories for climbing room in the coming months.

I’ll probably add a cage to that one, to help it to grow up and over the wall.

I’m happy with their placements because it makes a nice experiment. I don’t know how much sun or how hot of a sun they can take so it’s good for comparison’s sake to have multiple locations.

Temps dipped below freezing last week, so I pulled an Arizona move and covered them with “frost cloths,” aka kitchen rags.

Ugly but effective! The squash sailed right through, and now we are back in the 70s.

As you can imagine, I’m super excited! Four mirlitons, three different locations, all making my tiny patio come alive. I’m not going to let the lack of irrigation stop me from giving these squash the best possible life!

I’ll share photos along their journey!

Thanks as always for reading my plant blog! Liza