What Is Industrial Loofah? A Look at Its Planting Benefits
When you think of loofah, you must picture those plates of tender, green, delicious dishes on the dining table. But beyond the dining table, the many uses of loofah go far beyond what you can imagine! The loofah is very long and thick, and its loofah sponge has high density and high hardness, making it most suitable for producing insoles, seat cushions, mattresses and health care products, among other things. And so "industrial loofah" came into being. So what about the planting benefits of "industrial loofah"?
Unlike traditional edible loofah, industrial loofah is long and thick, and the older it gets, the more valuable it becomes. Its loofah sponge is highly favored by processing companies, and for growers it is a source of hope for increasing income.
Industrial loofah is planted starting in April and harvested from September to November, with three harvests possible, namely the plum melon, the summer melon and the autumn melon. The plum melon is rather small and should not be kept in large numbers; it can be used as an edible melon. The summer melon and autumn melon are large and high in output value, making them just right for industrial loofah, and any excess, cracked or misshapen summer and autumn melons can all be sold as edible melons.
In short, a single vine bears about 10 melons across 3 batches, and only 2 to 4 of the best are kept as industrial loofah, while the rest can all be thinned out and sold as edible melons.
With industrial loofah sponge, as long as the techniques and fertilizer blending are well mastered, the yield per mu can reach 80 kg-200 kg. However, if there is a lot of heavy rain, growers' yields average only about 60 kg/mu-120 kg/mu. But even when the weather is unkind that year, growers generally can still achieve an output value of one to two thousand yuan per mu from selling the loofah sponge alone. If contract farming is developed, selling only industrial loofah sponge can bring an output value per mu ranging from one to two thousand yuan up to five to six thousand yuan.
The seed cost is 120 yuan/mu-150 yuan/mu; with dense planting of 200 plants/mu-300 plants/mu, the seed cost is 200 yuan/mu-300 yuan/mu. This level of investment is only needed in the first year of planting; after the second year, good seeds can be selected and kept for self-saving, greatly reducing the cost.
The fertilizer and pesticide costs per mu are around 300 yuan.
In addition, growing industrial loofah also requires trellising. An ordinary bamboo or wooden trellis costs 650 yuan/mu-1,200 yuan/mu and can only be used for two or three years; for large-scale, industrialized planting, cement posts, steel pipes and steel wire can be used to set up an overhead net, at a cost of 2,300 yuan/mu-3,800 yuan/mu, and it can be used for 8-12 years.