How you can domesticate and harvest cassava root, the best calorie-dense meals plant to develop and the ninth hottest crop on this planet.

I used to be excited to reap my first cassava plant final week, and I needed to share the outcomes with you!

Cassava is, by far, the best food-producing plant I’ve ever tried to develop.

It’s far simpler than potatoes, one other well-liked alternative for a calorie-dense meals plant.

For novice gardeners who dwell in a temperate clime, cassava is a wonderful alternative to realize confidence by getting an enormous win on the board shortly.

Optimum Clime

Even if you happen to get the occasional freeze, cassava can nonetheless be a good selection to develop.

For instance, final winter we had a number of nights beneath freezing.

I wasn’t precisely positive how one can shield my cassava vegetation as they have been throughout 8 ft tall.

This was far too excessive to cowl. So, I selected to chop them again to a couple inches above the bottom after which shield the roots with a tarp.

The end result was precisely as I had hoped.

The cassava vegetation grew again to full top within the Spring with no hurt to the edible roots within the floor!

Cultivating Cassava

If after seeing this video beneath, you want to attempt your hand at rising cassava, I might advocate discovering a superb supply of cassava cuttings.

Rising cassava from cuttings is sort of foolproof and ensures a candy root.

Rising from seed dangers a extra bitter-tasting end result.

A 5-6 inch part of the stem is all you want. So if you realize somebody who grows cassava, ask them for just a few cuttings after they harvest the basis! The image beneath offers you a tough thought of the scale that’s preferrred.

Plant the cuttings in soil and water each different day or so. In my expertise, as soon as established, it grows effectively regardless of if the soil is moist, dry, or simply proper.

You’ll be able to plant the slicing both vertically with an inch or two sticking up out of the soil or horizontally an inch or two deep within the soil.

I’ve tried each approaches and horizontally is my most popular technique.

Cassava sprouts and grows like a weed! Actually inside just a few days, the brand new cassava plant shall be poking out of the soil rising fortunately.

The soil doesn’t even must be that nice, though actually nutrient-rich soil goes to provide a extra nutritious root.

Cassava grows very effectively in sandy soils too.

Harvesting the Roots

When your cassava plant is a few 12 months outdated, it’s time to harvest.

As you possibly can see within the video, my first plant was knocked over in a storm with large roots uncovered.

I really in all probability ought to have harvested it a few months earlier as a number of the root was too woody to course of and eat.

In different phrases, you don’t wish to depart the cassava plant too lengthy or the roots will steadily develop into inedible.

One other suggestion is to at the least clear and peel the roots inside a few days of harvest.

Deterioration of the basis quickly happens, so to make sure you get as a lot edible cassava as attainable, clear and peel the roots shortly and freeze what you gained’t prepare dinner straight away.

Cooking Cassava

My subsequent publish and video about cassava that I’m engaged on proper now could be how one can put together and luxuriate in it on the house menu!

Keep tuned!