MIRLITON.ORG
MIRLITON.ORG
by Lance Hill | Mar 20, 2019 | Mirliton | 1 comment
Mar 27, 2025
Many gardeners attribute plant failure to manure or compost that may have been contaminated with Grazon or other herbicides. A professional laboratory test is too expensive for the average gardener, but there is a simple, inexpensive test you can do at home. You can...
Mar 21, 2025
Spider mites and mealybugs tend to plague mirlitons that are planted in containers, especially if kept indoors as you overwinter the plant. You can manage mealybugs by soaking a cotton swab with 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol and...
Mar 17, 2025
Strong winds and hurricanes can shred a mirliton vine and stress it enough to delay or even stop flowering. Michelle Inmpastato Glore discovered an ingenious way to inexpensively and quickly protect the vine from winds: netting. With her young plants, she sandwiches...
Mar 8, 2025
Mirliton is the Haitian-French word for the Louisiana chayote (Sechium edule) vine that originated in Mexico and Central America. Haitians brought it to Louisiana in the 19th century, and it evolved over 200 years, adapting to the climate, altitude, and diseases....
Feb 14, 2025
Many people's yards have poor soil or soil with inadequate drainage which makes mirliton growing difficult. Either their soil gets overly saturated or has a high clay content and does not drain well. Raised beds are the solution. But growing mirlitons in a raised bed...
Dec 29, 2024
I learned of a large mirliton farm in Cut Off, Louisiana, in 2009 and traveled there to meet its owner, Vivian Danos Arceneaux. I learned it had been grown for decades and after examining the variety, I told her I wanted to give it a name to help preserve and...
Nov 11, 2024
Mitchell Thomas had poor soil that does not drain well--and that’s bad news for mirlitons whose roots need to breathe. So, he developed a method of growing them in fabric “grow bags.” He and others have gotten small crops with this technique. It enables you to grow...
Oct 20, 2024
We have a problem. Anyone growing mirlitons for the past few years knows that if the heat waves don’t get your vines, the hurricanes will. The weather has changed, and the forecast is that it will only get worse- more heat waves and hurricanes. But we...
Jul 1, 2024
Here’s a proven method of planting a spring sprout that you got too late for ground planting. Homer Baham told us about this simple method of container planting the mirliton for the summer and transplanting it into the ground in the fall. Then he mulches it for the...
Jun 9, 2024
Yellowing of a few leaves on a mirliton vine is normal and not necessarily caused by anything the grower did wriong. It’s usually caused by the stress of widely fluctuating soil moisture--intensive rains and droughts. You can’t control rain. Adding fertilizers won’t...