GardenTender Perennial Vegetable · zones 8–11 · 6 varieties
Chayote
Sechium edule
Cucurbitaceae — the same plant family as winter squash, cucumber, summer squash, melon and 7 more here. Relatives share pests and diseases, which is why rotation plans group by family.
Chayote (Sechium edule) is a tender perennial vegetable for USDA zones 8–11. It wants full sun and pH 5.5–7 soil, with about 1–2 in of water weekly. It matures in about 120–180 days from sowing. Watch for spider mites and powdery mildew. Below: its full sourced profile from 7 extension sources, plus a planting calendar timed to your frost dates.
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP for yours. This calendar assumes the crop is started indoors. Timing is a guide from the crop's sourced growth stages; confirm with your local frost dates and extension before you sow.
What we will not put a number on
We do not give a feeding rate for this crop, and that is deliberate rather than a gap. The figures published by extension services are pounds of nitrogen per acre for a production field — they do not convert safely to a raised bed or a pot without knowing your soil test and your fertilizer's analysis, and guessing errs toward burning roots. It is also why every chart you find online disagrees with the next one.
We give watering as a depth per week rather than gallons per plant, because that is how it is actually measured and how the published figures are written. A gallons-per-plant number depends on your spacing, your soil and whether the plant is in a pot — so it would look more precise than it is.
Site & soil
- Hardiness zones
- 8–11est
- This is the winter-survival floor for the perennial root. In colder gardens chayote is grown as an annual, though a short season may not leave time for fruit.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 5.5–7
- Soil texture
- Well drained
- Frost tolerance
- Tender
No published figure for the temperature frost starts to hurt it, a heat limit and a warm-night limit. We looked — where a number is missing here it is missing from the research, not skipped. The crop’s frost and heat tolerance above still applies.
The plant
- Mature height
- 6–10 ftest
- Mature spread
- 50 ft
- Growth rate
- Fastest
- Spacing in row
- 96–144 in
- Between rows
- 96–144 inest
- Planting depth
- 3–4 in
- Container size
- 5–10 gal — low end is the minimum, high end is betterest
- Support
- Needs staking or a trellis
- Grown from
- Whole fruit, Transplant
Water & feeding
- Water needs
- Moderate
- Water per week
- 1–2 in/wkest
- Critical water
- Flowering, Fruit setest
- Feeding
- Moderate
Timing & fruiting
- Days to maturity
- 120–180 days from seedest
- Years to first harvest
- 0 yr
- Harvest cues
- Fruit sizing
- Killed by cold below
- 54 °F
Planted again for autumn
- Sow by
- late Jun typical · zone 6b
120 days to maturity from sowing, counted back from the first frost above. Not published for anywhere in particular: it is your own frost date and this crop's own figure, which is why it works wherever you are. A days-to-maturity figure is a catalog number for a good season rather than a promise, and a cold month moves it.
Edible parts per source: fruit, stem, leaf, seed.
Compiled from the extensions cited below. Which ones actually show up depends on your region — your extension's local list is the last word.
| Variety | Type | Habit | Days | Color | Size | What it is known for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida Green | Green Smooth | Vining | 120–180 | Green | Medium | |
| Kong | Vining | 120 | Cody Cove Farm & Nursery describes this asgives a heavy crop | |||
| Monticello White | White Smooth | Vining | 120–180 | |||
| Perulero | White Smooth | 120–180 | White | |||
| Prickly | Spiny | 120–180 | Green | |||
| Smooth Thornless | Green Smooth | Vining | 120–180 | Green |
- LSU AgCenter
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (Aggie Horticulture)
- University of Florida IFAS Extension
- University of Florida IFAS Extension (Gardening Solutions)
We compile bare facts from these university-extension and horticultural sources, never copied prose. 14 of the 22 values on this page carry a citation. The rest are marked est; hover one and it says why — either nobody publishes a figure we could point at, or a person set it and attached no source. Figures vary with climate and seed source; confirm with your local extension before you buy.
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