I spent Christmas dawn ( after exchanging presents with the children ) moil up huge yam in my pace .
Merry Christmas to ME !
It may be operose to severalise thanks to the strange perspective , butthat ’s around 140lbs of yam .
reliable yams , not to be confused with sweet white potato , are the simplest root harvest you may produce in Florida .
They taste like lily-white potatoes and both fry nicely and are a good addition to soup .
Most of these yams grow in the “ wild ” parts of my grounds beneath tree diagram and along fences .
How To Grow Huge Yams
Growing huge yam , as oppose to normal - sized yams , is just a matter of let them stay in the reason for an additional yr .
My largest one is a 2 - 3 year old root that clocked in at 45lbs .
That was a individual root that break in half . It took me about a half time of day to dig out it up , then pull it from the land was a chore .
I ate some yam hasheesh Brown University for breakfast . I did n’t H2O or fertilize those vines and I get huge yam in two years just by waiting around .
You ca n’t do that with clean potatoes !
Here ’s how I took some yam plant from the storehouse and grew them out for the garden this bounce .
If you constitute your yam plant in a nice , fertile point with good water , they ’ll grow even faster . I suffer a 10 lb root from one of those “ minisetts ” remark in the link above . Since yam are perennial , if you feel around and cerebrate the root word is small , wait another year . It ’ll get a spate braggy .
yam are one of the vegetable that I wrap up inTotally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening : The Secret to Growing Piles of Food in the Sunshine State .
Interestingly , one of the very few negative recap I get about the book was this one on Amazon :
Joseph has unwittingly stumble upon one of my chief goals when I indite the record book : introducing Florida gardeners to lesser - known crops that will thrive in the state .
Rather than writing just another gardening book on how to grow tomatoes , Allium cepa and “ flat 8 ” cucumber , I sought out and tested new edibles . The book will help you turn typical crops , sure – but the focus is onMORE FOOD for LESS WORK !
Finding some of the crops in the book takes a little exertion but it ’s not punishing when you tie up with local permaculture and horticulture mathematical group in your area . Make a wish leaning and start take around – you ’ll find oneself them .
Heck , I could easily have called the bookTotally Crazy Easy Florida horticulture : The Secret toLITERALLYGrowing Piles of Food in the Sunshine State .
I call up a magnanimous problem with most Florida horticulture Quran is that they ’re still stuck on spring up crops that just are n’t perfect for this sphere .
Yams totally fit out this clime … so why not discover to use up them ?
Three Crops That Will Feed You In Florida
Here , just look at these three crop that would feed you in Florida withALMOST NO WORKthat you ’re not going to find in most any other gardening book :
Yams(easy to grow 1,000lbs worth by scattering them along the edges of your attribute )
Chaya(greens , endless nutrient William Green ! )
Yard - long Beans(also known as snake beans )
grounds - long beans only involve a bit of percipient ground and a treillage to load you up with more green beans than you could eat . Chaya can be turn into a hedge that produces green that taste better than prickly-seeded spinach and are sweeter than collard … and yams are so stupid gentle to develop that I do n’t sympathise why they are n’t everywhere .
So sure as shooting , complain that these craw are n’t all that promiscuous to see . I understand that – some of them took me a while to collar down , too . Yet once you have ’em , you have ’em ! And there are a lot more crop in the book that will storm and amaze you with their productivity and first-class spirit .
How To Find Yams To Grow
yam are actually easy to find . There are some that develop in the wild as escaped harvest , like these :
you may find that type ( Dioscorea alata ) wherever multitude have been , usually near sure-enough homesteads and spread out here and there . I do n’t know how many were institute deliberately , but I do cognize that they seem to be in more maladjusted domain and near roadsides .
you may also feel the more well - behaved non - invasive yam plant for your garden at Oriental market and even in Publix . Look for “ name ” yams .
Why spend tons of workplace growing potatoes when you may maturate Brobdingnagian yam rather ?
