Growing Choko/Chayote, also Chayote squash, christophene, chouchou, mirliton

Sechium edule : Cucurbitaceae / the gourd family

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

Not recommended for growing in USA - Zone 5a regions

Easy to grow. Plant whole mature fruit when one produces a shoot at one end.. Best planted at soil temperatures between 59°F and 86°F. (Show °C/cm)
Space plants: 39 inches apart
Harvest in 17-25 weeks. Best when fruit is light green and not more than 6 cm long.
Compatible with (can grow beside): Cucumbers

Your comments and tips

05 Dec 22, Tamra Stafford (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Our choko vine produces very well, but the majority of the chokos appear to be stung or dimpled. What is doing this, and can we stop it.
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24 Nov 22, Beeve (New Zealand - temperate climate): Where can we actually get a choko, to grow
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26 Jul 22, Nori (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate): When do I start cutting down the plant. Is it during winter season? Tks
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27 Jul 22, Julie Pannell (Australia - temperate climate): Cut back the vines to about 12 inches above ground after the last choko has been picked, closer to the end of winter. They will have very little growth for ages and then grow again when the time is right. The leaves can be dead at the beginning of vines but still keep fruit growing at the ends. They fruit for many months.
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27 Jun 22, Virginia de Joux (New Zealand - temperate climate): Hi - wondering if you have any choko plants spare? I am struggling to find a seed source.
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05 Aug 22, Anthony (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): i Buy a choko from the store and leave it on top of my fridge or in a fruit bowl on the table .The choko will sprout from one end. Once sprouted it is ready to plant out. Plant the whole vegetable in the ground on its side. Then support and train the vine up a stake or trellis. i then train it to a overhead rack, (Old wire mesh fence gate on poles ) 1 choko will produce a lot of vines , and should yield 80 fruit or more
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30 Jun 22, (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): Buy a choko and put it in your pantry until it starts sprouting.
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03 Jun 22, Jessy (New Zealand - temperate climate): Grew my first ever choko this year starting with a whole choko in the ground. Got more than 200 chokos. I like the taste of choko after it started sprouting. So I ended up with a lot of sprouted choko seeds which I planted in the ground. (Only the seeds, no flesh attached to it). They are growing well and I am harvesting the growing tips from them already. If these plants from seeds alone grow big, will they produce chokos? Does the nutritional value of chokos change as they start sprouting? Thanks.
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05 Aug 22, Anthony (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): Best to plant the whole choko after it has sprouted. I have heard, that just planting the seeds is not as successful .But you can always try right.
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17 May 22, Brian (Australia - temperate climate): Thank you Chris, the feedback I received has given me advice different to what I have been doing with Chokos. I will have to follow up when I know of availability of fruit so that I can purchase them and try again.
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my wife brought home a couple of Chayote that had started sprouting tiny roots out the bottom, so I researched and found that you can carefully split the fruit in half and retrieve the seed, you do not need to plant the entire fruit, but you must be very careful splitting the chayote because the seed is soft, not hard like an avocado or mango, and easily damaged when splitting the fruit. Then I planted them in small starter containers in the kitchen window, and after a few weeks when the shoots had gotten about 2 inches tall, I transplanted them outside into a 5-gallon bucket with a heavy-duty tomato cage as a trellis. A few weeks later one had been eaten by pests and died, but the other is growing and about 6 inches tall. I know this is the wrong timing for growing chayote, but since the seeds had already sprouted roots, I wanted to see what I could do with them. If the one remaining vine survives the winter here in Zone 10A, like my tomatoes and eggplants usually do, maybe it will flower and fruit next year. If a seed package or even a very reputable web site like Gardenate posts a recommended panting time, and your circumstances don't match that recommended timing, try it anyway, you never know what the results might be unless you try. I'll plant potatoes year-round whenever I have any potatoes sprouting slips. I may only get a few baby potatoes when panted "out of season", but it was either try to grow the sprouts or add them to the compost bin. I also grow garlic in Zone 10A even though it is recommended not to. They are smaller than if grown in better climates, but small garlic is better than no garlic, it still tastes great, just use two cloves instead of one.

- dz

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Growing Choko/Chayote, also Chayote squash, christophene, chouchou, mirliton

Sechium edule : Cucurbitaceae / the gourd family

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