How to grow Chayote

Chayote is a warm-season tender perennial that requires 120 to 150 frost-free days to reach harvest. Grows as a vine and produces pale green to white flattened—ear-shaped fruit that tastes like a nutty-flavored squash. The vines can reach up to 50 feet long, leaves are hairy and resemble maple-leaves. Grow 1 chayote plant per household of 4 people. Takes full sun or partial shade and grows in loose, well-drained but moisture-retentive soil rich in organic matter.¹

Leave mature fruit indoors in a cool, dry place until it starts to form a shoot.

Plant shooting fruit at an angle with the shooting end pointing downwards and the top just at or slightly above soil level.

Chayote can be started in a container and then transplanted to the garden. Transplanting should be done before the roots start showing through the bottom of the container.

Pick the fruit when pale green and about 5cm (2inches) in length. Larger, older fruit have less flavour.

The centre of the choko fruit is a seed. This is the part that will shoot if the harvested fruit is kept indoors.

Take one chayote and leave it in a dry place for about two weeks. Check it every other day as it will start sprouting from the narrow side. When the sprout is about three inches long it is time to plant it.

These estimates for how long Chayote takes to sprout, grow and harvest are from real observations from real gardeners, right around the world.

At one time there was a rumor afloat in Australia that McDonald’s was making its apple pies from chayote rather than apples. It appears that this wasn’t the case—chayote were more expensive at the time than apples. McDonald’s responded by emphasizing that this pies were made from real Granny Smith apples.

Do not let the fruits touch the ground as chayote will germinate while still attached to the vine.²

Mirliton, Christophine, Chow-chow, Choko, Chocko, Chouchou, Cidra, Gayota, Vegetable pear, Squash

¹ www.harvesttotable.com

² https://harvesttotable.com/how_to_grow_chayote/