A Houma man has grown a nearly 5-pound mirliton fruit from his home garden. And, yes — that's pretty big.

Colwart O'Neil, of 254 Cleveland St., said he's not sure how his mirliton, also known as chayote, grew so large. But he suspects the mirliton flower cross-pollinated with another plant of the same species in his garden.
Mirlitons belong to the gourd family, along with melons, cucumbers and squash, and typically don't weigh more than 8 to 10 ounces.
There are a number of plants in O'Neil's garden with which a mirliton may have cross-pollinated, he said.
“I grow everything around here,” said the retired 90-year-old Houma native.
O'Neil's garden is about 40-feet long and 70-feet wide, he said, and it contains a variety of produce such as corn, beans, sugar-snap peas, and carrots.
O'Neil said he gave the mirliton to a neighbor who has planted its seeds, but they have yet to grow.
Lance Hill, executive director of Tulane University's Southern Institute for Education and Research and an avid mirliton horticulturist, said what likely caused the mirliton to get so big was that it wasn't harvested in the spring, which is when they are ripe.
“We had a mild winter and many growers did not cut their vines,” he said. “And so whatever they were growing continued to grow.”
O'Neil kept the mirliton on the vine through fall.
Hill said a mirliton is a self-pollinating plant — meaning it has both male and female organs — and so, unlike O'Neil suggested, it is more likely to pollinate themselves rather than cross-pollinate with other mirliton plants in the vicinity.
O'Neil's mirliton grew so large because it grew for a longer time and was provided with ample water and nutrients, not because it cross-bred with another species of gourd, Hill wrote in an email.
Whatever the reason for its size, Hill said a mirliton that large won't be as tasty as a traditionally sized one.
But a big mirliton such as this one, Hill said, grown organically, can be used for its non-germicidal seeds, which have become harder to come by in North America.
O'Neil learned to farm from his grandfather in east Houma, he said, and he prefers organic produce, unlike what is offered at most grocery stores.
“These grocery stores use poison on everything,” he said, referring to pesticides. “Poison will hurt anybody.”
O'Neil said all he uses in his garden, in terms of pesticide, is soap, Clorox and water.
“That kills 99 percent of bugs,” he said, “without killing you.”
Hill runs a nonprofit, volunteer organization dedicated to promoting the conservation and uses of Louisiana heirloom mirlitons, as they are scientifically called.
Once a backyard staple in southern Louisiana, mirlitons were nearly destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav, Hill said.
Hill's website, www.mirlitons.org, seeks to restore mirlitons as a culturally significant backyard fare.