Planting Chayote or Sayote

The lowly Chayote or Sayote as it is commonly called here in the Philippines is nothing but lowly at all. In fact, it is a very versatile vegetable and it can be used in stir-fry recipes and soups. It can also be added to stewed or boiled chicken or meat dinner, it can be steamed and eaten with a dipping sauce of your own choice. It can also be made into pickles or candies if you know how. It keeps well even without refrigeration. I remember a time some years ago when many people in the lowlands were victims of calamities such as strong typhoons and flooding and they lost everything except for the clothes on their backs. The people of Baguio City ( that includes me of course) pooled our resources and sent plenty of sacks full of this Sayote fruits as our way of helping the victims in terms of food aide.  

We have a Sayote plant that was planted in the lower terrace near the rabbitry. The plant used to overrun the roof of the old pigsty before we converted it into the rabbitry. When we started to do the work on the rabbitry, we had to cut off the stem of the Sayote plants. Now, they are growing back again. There are still a few remaining trees that we did not cut when we got some to use as post for the chicken run. The Sayote plant uses these trees to climb onto and it is bearing some fruits now. We gather the tender shoots and its fruits for our own food consumption and we use the leaves and its vines to feed the chickens and the rabbits. Nothing is wasted with this plant. It is easy to grow sayote by using the matured ones and planting it directly on the ground and once it is already established, it will bear a lot of fruits. We apply rabbit manure directly on the plant as fertilizer. Rabbit manure is considered as cold fertilizer unlike chicken dung which has to be aged and composted before being used. This is why rabbit manure can be applied directly without burning the plants. This sayote plant thrives in a cool climate such as what we have here in Baguio City but it will have a difficult time surviving in warmer areas such as in Isabela. My sister-in-law tried planting it in Isabela but in spite of the care that they gave to the plants, they did not make it.