I made a video of my yacon harvest. I’ll post the link below.
Sam, thanks for posting. I particularly enjoy seeing ways of growing these crops that we don’t use here - like growing yacon in pots! That turned out better than I would have expected. Your harvest was really pretty close to what you would have achieved in the ground in the same amount of time. The Cusco plant probably could have used another month, but the harvest was still very respectable.
Thanks Bill.
It’s good to hear from you that I got a good harvest.
I really enjoy growing this plant. I’ll be starting them early next year for sure.
I moved the pots into the carport for frost protection but I found out the hard way they were really sensitive.
Here is my harvest of yacon ‘Original’ (possibly synonymous with Late Red). Total weight of edible material was 6 ounces. I have grown this variety for three years now and this is the typical result. For the first two years, I figured that low yield could be attributed to grower error. Now I am beginning to think that this variety just needs a longer growing season than the Midwest can provide. Also, in the past three years, there have been no signs of flowering.
I like yacon. It grows acceptably well in the Midwest. The storage tubers taste good. For those reasons I am definitely looking forward to trialing the other varieties of yacon that cultivariable offers. I am hopeful that other varieties will yield more and, with any luck, will flower.
When did you plant them? What zone are you in?
Wow, that seems like a very disappointing harvest, sunbender. I think you ought to be able to get a better result than that with any yacon variety. How early did you start them and how much rhizome did you use (how much weight/how many growing points, roughly)? Do the plants have full sun? I’m surprised by the small size of the storage roots, but even moreso by the very small amount of rhizome. Have you observed any yellow mosaic in the leaves? Definitely put the variety Bekya on your list. It bulks storage roots a bit earlier than the others.
Bill, congratulations on the new yacon variety.
I’ve been able to harvest enough propagative material from ‘Original’ to do a more controlled evaluation next year. I honestly can’t account for why my yield is so low. I can rule out disease. The plants are very healthy.