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 New Zealand - cool/mountain 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

10 Nov 21, Anonymous (Canada - Zone 4b Temperate Warm Summer climate)
Check the climate zone here for that area.
02 Nov 21, Rosie Spence (New Zealand - temperate climate)
Where am I able to get Choko plants or seeds in NZ, I’m finding them difficult to access, thank you in advance
05 Aug 22, Anthony (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)
buy a whole choko from the store set aside indoors ( maybe in a fruit bowl ) and it will sprout a vine on its own Then plant the whole thing .. i have a posting becoming available, that will explain the process after that
05 Nov 21, (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)
Buy seeds online or buy a choko and wait until it starts sending out a shoot and then plant.
01 Sep 21, Johnny Leech (New Zealand - temperate climate)
Will choko grow in a cold area in North Canterbury
07 Sep 21, (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)
No, they need warm weather by the look of it.
27 Apr 21, Betty (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)
We plan to move within 6 months and I want my choko to come with us. How can I keep a choko fruit so I can plant it in our new garden? I have fruit now. Or what would you advise Thanks? Thanks.
28 Apr 21, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Best I can suggest is keep a few of the very last ones of this crop. Put them in the pantry. They could take a few months before they start to sprout. The new vine could grow a few feet long by the time you plant. Or say spring time plant them in a 9L bucket or tin etc and grow them there until plant out time.
22 Apr 21, Rowena Flood (Australia - temperate climate)
Does anyone have choko's growing in tasmania
29 Apr 21, (Australia - temperate climate)
Very unlikely unless they are in a temperate or subtropical climate.
Showing 41 - 50 of 270 comments

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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