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

Sechium edule : Cucurbitaceae / the gourd family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N 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

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11 Apr 18, Nancy (Australia - temperate climate)
Chokoes have plenty of flowers but no fruit developing
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12 Apr 18, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Pollinates by wind or bees. Are they male and female or just male flowers.
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17 Mar 18, kathleen ingram (Australia - temperate climate)
Questioun Trying to grow a choko i live in cooma nsw can i grow it in a hot house (green house ) could u tell me when it will start flowering please any help would be gratefull thank u
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18 Mar 18, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
It says plant in warm climates. Plant in temperate zone in Dec. I think it maybe too late to plant now. If it has a sprout plant it.
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10 Feb 18, Suzanne R White (Australia - temperate climate)
Wondering why the leaves of my growing choko are yellowing. Overwatering or under watering.? Maybe mineral deficiency.
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12 Feb 18, Mike (Australia - temperate climate)
Consider how fertile your soil is. Add some fertiliser (N). You should know if you are over watering. Big plants water each couple of days depending on the temp. Put some trace elements on - Bunnings $10.
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07 Feb 18, Brett (Australia - temperate climate)
I live in the Mallee I'd love to grow these , but it gets in the high 30-40 here in summer what the best I can do . I should be able to plant early if they can take a bit of frost
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07 Feb 18, Mike (Australia - temperate climate)
It says to plant in December in the temperate zone, so you are about 5 weeks late. If you have a choko that is shooting, plant it.
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12 Feb 18, Brett Chanter (Australia - temperate climate)
No I don't , Ill have to see if I can find one . Would it be to late for this area you think ?
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13 Feb 18, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
You can try - the times here are only a guide - they are not perfect all the time - if it doesn't work plant earlier next time. An idea is to buy a choko a couple of months earlier than planting - put it down the bottom of the pantry in the cool dark place. It will probably start to shoot after awhile. Come Dec plant it in the soil.
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Showing 91 - 100 of 224 comments
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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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