you never know what the luffa's gonna actually end up being at the pickable stage. >> the luffa sponge is actually a member of the gourd family and kind of looks like a small zucchini before it's harvested. deanne says they tend to like the nice warm greenhouses she has and the nice warm growing season she has along the central coast. but even that doesn't guarantee a good harvest because, as she calls them, they are plants with an attitude. >> if it likes you, it'll grow very, very well. we've discovered that you can give a handful of people in the room a full handful of seeds. out of 5 or 10 of them, only a few of them will actually get a vineage. out of that vineage, only a few will actually be able to have a pickable luffa. it's a plant that if it likes you, it'll do very, very well. if it doesn't like you, we say please just don't take it perscnal. since they have an attitude, if they're hanging by scmebody they don't pref, one of the two of them will just shrivel up. so we try to keep them separated a little bit like arguing children. >> the luffa plant is made up of a robust vin