I am always on the lookout for healthy vegetables that are easy to grow in home gardens in Hawaii. While I was working at the Urban Garden Center in Pearl City, a visitor knocked on my office door and asked if she could drop off some chayote to share. Her two vines at home in Kaimuki had produced an abundance, and she wanted to give the fruits, which were sprouting new plants, to others to plant in their gardens.

I was eager to listen as she shared the many ways she likes to prepare the crunchy, mild-tasting fruit: raw, cooked in soups and stir-fries like squash or green papaya, and pickled many ways. It can be pickled like dill pickles, like pickled mango, and with chili peppers and onions. You can find recipes for the fruits, as well as the plant’s nutritious shoots and leaves, by searching for “chayote” on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser website .

Chayote (Sechium edule) is an edible plant in the Cucurbitaceae (gourd) family, which includes squash, cucumbers and melons. It grows as a vine with shoots and leaves similar to cucumber, producing many fruits. The pale green fruits are somewhat pear-shaped, 3 to 8 inches long when mature, with a single large seed. The fruit, seed, tender shoots and leaves, and roots are all edible.

Originally from Central America, it is grown and eaten traditionally in many cultures throughout the world. In Hawaii it is called pipinola (Hawaiian), chayote (Spanish) or sayote (Filipino). In Louisiana the fruits are known as mirlitons. Other names include vegetable pear and choko (Australia and New Zealand).

Chayote is easily propagated by planting a mature fruit directly in the ground. It is normal for the seed to germinate and send out a shoot while the fruit is still on the vine.

Prepare the planting area with compost and fertilizer or composted manure. The seed will sprout and send out both the shoot and roots from near the bottom (large end) of the fruit, so plant the fruit sideways, halfway buried in the soil.

Vine stem cuttings with two to four nodes can be planted but require some care and are best started in containers in a shady area. The plant forms a large vine and requires a trellis or support to grow on. Like many squashes, it makes separate male and female flowers and requires pollination by bees or other insects.

Chayote is usually low maintenance and resistant to pests and diseases in the home garden. Occasionally slugs, snails or beetles might reduce plant growth by eating leaves. Nematodes sometimes affect the roots.

Visit the UH Master Gardener website and look under Frequently Asked Questions or Hawaii Gardening Basics to help you identify your pest and learn safe control methods. To get advice from an expert, you can contact the UH Master Gardeners via phone, email or visiting them at the Urban Garden Center and five farmers markets across Oahu.

For more detailed information on growing chayote or other crops, visit the UH Master Gardener and Sustainable and Organic Agriculture Program’s websites .

Kalani Matsumura is a junior extension agent with the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and coordinates the UH Master Gardener Program on Oahu.