Mirliton How-To Tips
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Mirliton Seed Online Store
Lee Flynn created and manages the Mirliton Seed Online Store, which she does as a volunteer. The store sells only certified Louisiana Heirloom Mirlitons. They are sold at cost, depending on the price that the grower charges (some are donated). Mirlitons are only available in season, and the quantity per order is limited so that everyone can obtain one. If we are out of stock, you will be put on a waiting list and be notified immediately when available. Click here for the store.
Additionally, people advertise heirloom mirlitons when they are in season (Spring and Fall) on our Mirliton.Org Facebook Group.
Frost Protection
Frost Protection
There is a possibility of a damaging frost whenever the temperature drops below 38 degrees. You can protect your mirliton with either a minimum or maximum plan.
Minimum plan: Tent the vine the day before with a tarp or 4mil plastic cover. A FEMA tarp will work well. Weight down the edges of the tarp with bricks (you are trying to trap the heat from the soil inside the enclosure). This will raise the temperature a few degrees and may avert the frost.
Maximum plan: Add heat to the tent. You will need an extension cord and a small space heater. A space heater will raise the tent’s internal temperature several degrees, which will protect the vine if temperatures dip to 32 degrees. There are also portable gas heaters. Buy a remote thermometer and place the sending unit in the tent enclosure and you will be able to see exactly what the internal temperature is. Remote thermometers will permit you to see what the temperature is in the tented trellis from the comfort of your home. They are the best defense against a freeze–and cost only
$20. Buy it here.
Rethinking The Mirliton Planting Schedule: Winter Vines and Summer Shade
The Louisiana Mirliton Two-Step
Because of increased extreme weather events like Heat Domes and frequent hurricanes, we need to think entirely differently about when and how to grow mirlitons. We have two chances at a mirliton crop: Spring and Fall. We need to especially take advantage of our cool months, October through May.
Step One
Plant your mirliton seed or container plant in the fall and build a trellis for the vine to grow on all winter. When necessary, temporarily cover it with 4-mil plastic and warm it with a portable heater to protect it on frost/freeze days. By the following spring, the vine will have a large canopy to support flowering–and you will get a spring crop.
Step Two
To help your vine get through the summer, use the same trellis to support a 30% shade cloth to shade the vine from June through August, if necessary. That will give you a a good chance at another crop in the Fall
How to Hand-Pollinate Mirlitons
Sometimes bees and other pollinators are not doing their job and you want to ensure that your female flowers are pollinated. The simplest way is to hand pollinate with a slender artist’s brush with dark bristles. The bristles make it clear that you have collected yellow pollen from the males. Using a brush means you do not destroy the males and can return to them for additional pollen. Click on each photo in this link to read the instructions: https://www.mirliton.org/photo/hand-pollinating-of-mirlitons/
Identifying and Managing Anthracnose in Mirlitons (Chayote)
Mirliton leaf infected with anthracnose. Unlike powdery mildew which yellows uniformly and wilts the leaves, anthracnose starts as yellow wedges between the leaf veins. It then turns the leaf tissue brown and leaves with a distinctive “shot hole.”
Anthracnose is a summer disease caused by many fungi, but the pathogen that affects mirlitons is Colletotrichum lagenarium. For the purposes of this article, I will call Colletotrichum lagenarium the “anthracnose fungus. It is a chronic problem with mirlitons and it’s the main reason plants die the first year. There is no known synthetic or biological fungicide that can prevent or eradicate anthracnose in mirlitons. But anthracnose is like a sprained ankle; you can’t prevent it or take a pill to cure it, but you can minimize the risk of getting it and speed up the healing process.
Anthracnose and powdery mildew (PM) are fungal diseases that start with a common sign; leaf yellowing (chlorosis). It’s important to recognize the difference because powdery mildew can be treated, while anthracnose can’t. The PM fungus spreads on the surface of leaves, initially as faded yellow dots and then yellowing the whole leaf until it wilts and dies. Anthracnose, in contrast, grows inside the leaf cells and spreads cell-to-cell (intercellularly)l, so it tends to spread between the leaf veins and form sharp wedges. It kills the tissue within the wedge spreading across to the whole leaf, so you will see both yellow and brown tissue in the same wedge photo.
Mirlitons tend to experience anthracnose epidemics in July and August because of rain patterns. Intensive rains splash up anthracnose fungi from the ground onto the plant stem. The fungus incubates during warm nights and produces thousands of spores that are contained in a sticky base. Rainstorms dissolve the sticky film which releases the spores. Then, raindrops splash the spores to adjacent leaves–and that’s why anthracnose epidemics occur during the hot rainy season.
Anthracnose infects every part of the vine, including leaves, petioles, and stems. It will eventually split the stem, preventing the flow of nutrients to the ends of the stem, so suddenly a whole section of the vine will wilt and die. The good news is that for every stem lost, a healthy vine will send up a new shoot. It is a tug-of-war with the disease through the summer, but generally, the disease will disappear by September in time for flowering and fruiting.
The key to surviving an anthracnose epidemic is to have a healthy vine in place before the epidemic. That means a well-drained and aerated vine. When the soil is water-saturated and no oxygen is available in the root zone, plants go through dramatic changes to survive. They are literally in “anoxic” soil like the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. They shift from aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism: they have only 5% of the energy efficiency they have in healthy aerated soil; they produce toxic organic and inorganic compounds, and they deprive leaves of potassium crucial to maintaining leaf functions. After 24-48 hours, the roots have been damaged making it more difficult for them to uptake water and nutrients. Leaf functions are weakened and the whole plant is vulnerable to disease.
The good news is that a mirliton will acquire increased resistance to anthracnose every time it gets the disease. If your vine gets anthracnose this year, it is less likely to get it next year.
The solutions are simple.
Ground Planting:
Make sure the soil is well-drained and aerated. Plant on your highest area available, use planting hills, and stay away from roofs. Plant near a tree if you have one; trees are natural sponges and tend to stabilize soil moisture. If you already have the vine planted, you can dig shallow drainage trenches to remove excess rainfall away from the vine or add a corrugated drain pipe or a French drain.
Raised-bed Planting:
Remember that a raised bed can’t drain into a saturated yard, so you need to construct a bed that will permit excess rainfall to escape the bed via the sides. Add a lateral route for excess water to exit above ground level by drilling 1/4 “ holes along the side panels.
Summary:
For now, the best protection against anthracnose is (1) to use only locally grown heirloom mirlitons for seed since they are likely to have some resistance to anthracnose; (2) plant in well-drained, aerated sites; (3) provide plenty of trellis space so leaves on top can spread out and get maximum exposure to the sun (a natural fungicide) and air circulation; (4) minimize leaf/soil contact by using an overhead horizontal trellis at least 4 feet above the soil and (5) always irrigate gently with a hose set on low on the surface or drip irrigation to prevent splash-up of soil-borne fungi. Do not water mirlitons from the top down. Once leaves and stems are brown and dead, remove them and dispose of them away from the vine.
Click here to see photos of anthracnose infection signs on leaves and stem at different stages (click on each photo for descriptions)
Click here for how to identify and manage powdery mildew.
What is a Certified Louisiana Heirloom Mirliton?
Up until about 2020, any mirliton grown in Louisiana was an heirloom mirliton. They were what botanists call a “landrace.” Landraces are domesticated plants that developed over time and adapted to their natural environment and are not the product of human manipulation–such as plant breeding or modern genetic science. Haitians brought the first mirlitons to Louisiana over two centuries ago and that landrace thrived because it was adapted to our altitude, climate, pests, and diseases.
The mirliton landrace is easy to recognize because of its distinctive fruit traits; they are large, slightly pear or egg-shaped, with smooth skin, longitudinal furrows (though a few may be unfurrowed), and either green or white. Over the years other varieties were introduced from Mexico and Central America and interbred with the Louisana landrace. The resulting landrace was what generations of Lousianians simply called “mirlitons.” And for most of the last two centuries, there was only one variety.
Then things changed. After Hurricane Katrina wiped out almost all mirlitons in New Orleans, garden experts advised me to buy any chayote (mirliton) from a grocery store and plant it. That didn’t work because almost all imported chayote grew at high altitudes and would not produce in Louisiana. So I began to search for growers of our Louisiana landrace to replace the New Orleans ones. I soon found many growers in rural areas and when I did, I would name the mirliton after the grower so that we could track and preserve it.
I eventually noticed differences within Louisana mirlitons–there were clearly different subvarieties in the landrace. Mirlitons were more complex than we thought. Since the Louisiana mirliton has never been genetically analyzed, I decided to classify the subvarieties by fruit appearance (morphology), and then interview the growers to determine the strain’s history. If I could establish that the mirliton had been continuously grown for at least two decades, then I named it after the grower. That way we could keep that particular line going. That’s how named varieties came to be.
So there are two categories of Louisiana mirlitons:
1. Unnamed Louisiana Mirlitons is the name for the traditional Louisiana landrace. That encompasses almost any mirliton that was locally grown in Louisiana. We call these “unnamed variety.”
2. Named Certified Louisiana Mirlitons are the few strains within the larger unnamed category that Mirliton.Org has named after investigating and verifying they have been continuously grown for at least twenty years in Louisana. There are currently fourteen named certified varieties of Louisiana heirloom mirlitons:
Ervin Crawford
Joseph Boudreaux
Ishreal Thibodeaux
Boudreaux-Robert
Jody Coyne
Blacklege
Papa Sylvest
Bogalusa whites
Chauvin-Rister
Remondet-Perque
Miss Clara
Bebe Leblanc
Maurin
Dupuy-Prejean
Only these named certified varieties have been researched and verified as authentic heirlooms. If you grow one of these named varieties, you can be confident you are growing a Louisiana heirloom.
Why is it important to continue tracking heirlooms? Beginning in 2020, several grocery store chains began to import chayote (mirlitons) that looked exactly like our heirloom varieties because they sold better. And some people began to grow them because they were indistinguishable from our heirloom variety. The problem is that imported chayote may carry a deadly seed-transmissible virus that can destroy the Louisiana variety. It’s called Chayote Mosaic Virus (ChMV), and it’s devastated crops in other countries.
If you want to preserve the Louisiana heirloom variety and keep them safe, the best way is to only use certified heirloom seeds like the ones named above. Mirliton.Org offers a free certification service and maintains a list of certified growers.
We can also certify new varieties that you may come across–and we expect the list of verified ones to grow. If you find a grower who says that their mirlitons were locally grown but have no name, the grower can ask Mirliton.Org to verify and certify them as an heirloom variety. We will do that by examining fruit characteristics, taking an oral history, and conducting visits to grow sites.
How to get Mirlitons to Sprout Quickly: Incubate Them!
Growers normally try to delay mirliton sprouting by putting new fruit in paper bags and storing them in a cool part of the house. Cool temperatures promote dormancy and prevent sprouting. But you may want to promote quick sprouting so you can plant them immediately in the ground or container, especially if you want to plant them in the fall. Here’s an “incubation” trick that Joseph Boudreaux of Broussard taught me that speeds up sprouting.
You can incubate them inside your home in the fall or winter using a small plastic trash can with a heating pad underneath. Place the mirlitons in the can and loosely cover the top with some cardboard. Place a thermometer next to the mirlitons and adjust the heating pad to maintain the can temperature at 80°-85°. When kept warm like this, the fruit will normally begin to sprout within 10-14 days. Sprouting is defined as when the internal seed pushes its way to the large end of the seed (“sticks its tongue out) and a small green shoot emerges. Here is how I did it with a trash can.
If the outside temperatures are in the 90s, you can do this outside in a cardboard box without a heating pad. Once you pick the fruit, place it in a shaded warm area with a constant temperature of at least 75-80°F to encourage sprouting. If storing them outside, use chicken wire or netting to protect the seed from pests that enjoy eating the new sprouts.
Once a mirliton sprouts, it means the seed is viable and can be planted. It’s important not to distribute or sell the seed until it has sprouted because sometimes—especially with Spring mirlitons—the seed can look healthy but have no internal inner seed and will not sprout and grow a new vine (it’s called parthenocarpy).
Fertilizing Mirlitons
There has never been a scientific study for home gardeners on how to best fertilize mirlitons, so we get to invent the science ourselves. In the growers guide that I wrote several years ago, I recommended 8-24-24 fertilizer. I don’t advocate that specific one anymore. Any fertilizer with a lower percentage of nitrogen (the first number) such as 5-20-20 will work fine and old-fashioned 8-8-8 or MIracleGro are good choices. A couple of tablespoons at planting and again in July is sufficient—as long as the vine is vigorously growing and green.
But there are two important fertilizing principles I have learned from experienced growers:
(1) Use a slow-release fertilizer such as manure. A mirliton’s nitrogen needs vary throughout the growing season. You don’t want to jolt their tender young roots when you first plant them. They like a buffet where they can eat light, but return for more helpings when they need it. Manure provides that. Ideally, work into your soil or planting pit before you plant, but you can side-dress throughout the season. Rabbit manure is the best choice, but any manure will do the job.
(2) If you are using fast-release fertilizers, stop before the flowering season. A dose of fertilizer can delay and disrupt flowering.
I asked our home gardener mirliton scientists last year to tell us how they fertilized mirlitons. What were the signs it was helping or hurting? Did the experiment with different techniques? I got these thoughtful responses. Click here to read them.
No More Guesswork In Watering Mirlitons: The Soil Sampler
Excessive rains and prolonged droughts make it nearly impossible to know if we have the right soil moisture for mirlitons. Extremes in soil moisture–too much or too little–can stress the plant and cause diseases. Mirliton growers in Brazil long ago took the guesswork out of determining exactly how much available moisture lies below the surface. They use an inexpensive “soil sampler” which allows them to take a core sample of their gardens/fields and see and touch the soil at all levels. You can’t beat that.
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You can buy a small soil sampler for less than $20, or if you are like me and have an old worn-out back, you can get a 36” one with a footstep. Once you pull up a core, you can pop it out onto a table touch the soil at each level and to feel for moisture levels. A mirliton’s primary root zone is in the top 7” of soil, so no more drowning or dehydrating your plants. Watch this clip on how easy it is to use.
Buy the 12” one here
Buy the 36″ one here
Here’s a short video on how to use the “sight and touch” method for the core sample you take.
Preparing for the New Mirliton Season
- 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. Make sure you have room 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 $35 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 are essentially building a container below ground and filling it with your preferred soil mixture, just as you would with house plants. First, dig a pit 2’ x 3’ x 18” deep. Then fill it with a mix of equal parts: (1) the topsoil you removed from the hole, (2) commercial potting soil, (3) compost, and (4) manure (rabbit, if available). Make enough mixture to also build the hill on top (below).
- Build a hill. Make a 2’ x 2’ hill on top of the pit using the same mix. Transplant your mirliton into that in April or after the normal last frost date and add a wire cylinder trellis so the vine can climb to the overhead trellis.
- 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.
I will post on each step of the growing season in this series, including, disease and pest management, identifying subsurface soil moisture, fertilizing, inducing early flowering, hand pollination, and frost protection through sprinklers and temporary enclosures.
Links:
Soil Sampler for Testing Soil Moisture
Potassium bicarbonate