Lets talk about Skirret!

Perennial, tasty - what's not to like? Let's find out about skirret!

skirret root clump after a few years

Skirret (Sium sisarum) is also called suikerwortel (Netherlands), crummock – corruption of Gaelic crumag (Scotland), zuckewurzel (Germany), sukkerrod (Denmark), chervis (France), sisaro (Italy)  - these names I found on Alison's backyard larder super blog here. It can be grown from seed or by division, preferring a damp soil. According to pfaf it has a US hardiness of zones 4 - 9.

The roots grow in a clump from the crown and are easily broken off and the plant can be divided to propagate and grow on. Apparently the roots are edible raw as well as cooked. The young shoots are also supposed to be edible and nutritious, although I haven't tried them yet. The German and Danish names "sweet root" give a clue as to the flavour, and I wonder if using it for sweet food like cakes and biscuits rather than a vegetable may be more appropriate. Incredibly the sugar content of the dry matter is about 65% (ref)

skirret roots prepared for cooking

There is some debate as to whether genetics or growing conditions are most significant in reducing a potential woody core to the roots. This is easily removed after cooking. I suspect if you don't have a nice damp spot then the genetics will be more important and there are a few people including Alison at the backyard larder that have been working on developing less woody strains.


Alison's photo from her blog

Growing happily in shade and damp the plant produces abundant white umbellifers which are appreciated by many insects.

skirret in bloom

Do you grow skirret? How does it do for you? How do you propagate, cultivate, harvest, and cook it?

I appreciate the skirret discussion. I had never heard of them until you brought them up here. My new farm stead is all clay with a growing number of hugelkultur beds (I just cant stop making them). Do you know if the skirrets will penetrate clay like sunchokes, or do they need light fluffy soil to form their unusual clumps?

Nancy wrote: Do you grow skirret? How does it do for you? How do you propagate, cultivate, harvest, and cook it?

Do seeds and good intentions count?

If you want some, Experimental Farm Network carries skirret seed. 2025 catalog won't drop until January 7th though.

Randy Bachman wrote:Do you know if the skirrets will penetrate clay like sunchokes, or do they need light fluffy soil to form their unusual clumps?

My understanding is that skirret prefer lighter soil. That's usually stated for root crops - even ones like tiller radish and sunchokes will probably do better in better soil. Alison (of the backyard larder blog) grows in clay soil and is improving it year on year for the skirret. I suspect the plants would grow shorted and fatter roots in heavier soil. I don't know whether this has been confirmed - there are just so many variables to be sure how much effect it might have.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Do seeds and good intentions count?

Seeds and good intentions definitely count! I think if you have tried and failed to grow skirret, that is just as valuable information as being able to grow skirret like weeds.
Mine doesn't tend to set many seed. It is supposed to be self fertile, and I think I had at least two batches of seed that my plants were grown from, so there should be no issues there. It may be it needs slightly better summers to set seed.

I'm planning on trying to grow it this year from seed. I have not grown it before, never heard of it prior to Permies, and I am excited.

For those who have grown it prior, does it do well in a polyculture or does it prefer its nearby space unoccupied?

Have two or three plants at the moment, growing in a mini-hugel. Had to rescue them last spring from the original planting spot, which killed most of the plants I had. I suspect at least part of the issue with the first spot was compact soil, though not for the usual reasons. It was part of my early experiments with no-dig soil improvement. Basically I just dumped a bunch of biochar, seaweed, leaves, lakeshore debris, fish guts etc on the ground, waited a year, and then planted into that. Not a success. The fungi liked it so well that the top layer turned into a compact mass of mycelium, rather like an unintentional version of Beau's mycelium insulation panels. I suspect that this was too hard for the plants to push their roots through. Nothing planted there thrived (though some things are still alive). Even the volunteer nettles seem to struggle a bit.

Anyhow, since the move the skirret plants seem to be doing quite okay. Hopefully we can begin harvesting in one or two years.

Timothy Norton wrote:does it do well in a polyculture or does it prefer its nearby space unoccupied?

I would say skirret would be fine in a polyculture. You can see in my picture of the flowers, my plants are not in isolation. Since I don't weed, buttercups have grown around them and there is some grass, sea cabbage, black currant bushes and artichokes amongst other plants nearby. I would say that they haven't done so well for me in my root polyculture area as yet, but I am trying to establish them in turf over compacted soil and they haven't liked that much. So I would say sympathetic polyculture is fine. The sprawling habit of the upper growth -two to three foot tall - would be good infilling in between more rigid plants that don't mind a bit of root disturbance when you harvest the skirret, or other clumpng plants of similar habit - like dahlia.

If you want some, Experimental Farm Network carries skirret seed. 2025 catalog won't drop until January 7th though.

Well, they were out of skirrets. But the website kept me occupied for quite awhile. What a marvelous site. Thank you for providing it. I bought a bunch of plants new to me. I am so excited. I will have to keep building beds for all the new plants coming

I tried a couple of times from seed, failed to germinate first time, second time it didn't make it or i forgot where it was, but probably it died again. Looks like it's worth it!

Thanks for the skirret topic!  The flowers alone make it something I would like to try, as there are local bees in need!

I have been growing skirret for many years (decades? I don't remember).  I like them, partially because they're kinda weird.  I find them to be a really easy no effort crop.  I just let them grow where they want to.  I harvest them when the tops are getting too big and in my way.  My wife is really into really normal vegetables and generally won't eat much of anything unusual, and my kids won't either. So I end up eating all of them, which is a lot.
John S
PDX OR

Can they be grown from the root?
Anything that makes that much sugar could be very helpful for anyone trying to be self sufficient.

William Bronson wrote:Can they be grown from the root?
Anything that makes that much sugar could be very helpful for anyone trying to be self sufficient.

Jan4,2025
I'm seeing information they can be divided at the roots!
How would you extract sweet?
How would a hardy root compare to a few canes of molasses...
Would this be easier than honey. . .

First of all, let me say that I'm a very skirretual person.  I pray in my garden. Ok, now that I've gotten that out of the way,

B, yes, you can regrow it from the roots.  Like many other root crops, such as yacon, dahlias, and sunchokes, you remove the side going carrot like parts to eat and leave the central one.  Maybe leave one of the carrot root things.  They regrow.

IV.  I have heavier clay soil and it grows well here.  Many root crops grow well here in PNW because it's rainy in the winter, so it can build up a big root, but dry as a bone for 2 months or more in the summer.  Grasses and tender plants die without water, but root crops will thrive because they have moisture storage in the best place possible.  My soil has gotten tremendously less heavy over the years, but below about 6 inches, I think it's still mostly heavy clay.

17.  I would have no way of knowing how to extract the sweet from the roots. If I knew that,  I would extract the gas - powered blowers from my neighborhood.

John S
PDX OR

William Bronson wrote:Can they be grown from the root?
Anything that makes that much sugar could be very helpful for anyone trying to be self sufficient.

I'm wondering the same thing at the moment. I did see somewhere that it was one of the crops considered as an alternative to sugar cane, but developing sugar beet won out. I suspect that extracting the sugar may be more successful due to the taste thing - skirret is very mild, whereas sugar beet needs a lot of refining to make it a neutral taste. I think I'll start a new thread on getting sugar from skirret and have a play with some of my roots.
Many sugar containing plants are not an option in my clmate and my husband does not want bees - I'm a bit nervous too, since I had a reaction the only time I have been stung. I do use a fair amount of sugar for preserving and cooking.

A plant that is a few years old will easily divide into lots of new plants - in my experience it is very easy to multiply. Of course the new plants will be genetic clones of the parent plant, so no improvement in yield of other characteristics.

I did not know about this 'suikerwortel'. Might be one of the forgotten vegetables ('vergeten groenten') that aren't grown much anymore.
I found out I can order the seeds from a seed company in my region. But I hope to find a grower where I can buy a plant.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:I found out I can order the seeds from a seed company in my region. But I hope to find a grower where I can buy a plant.

Both ways have advantages and disadvantages - a plant should establish and grow quickly. You might even get some yield and be able to divide it after a year depending on how well it likes your site. With seed, you should get some genetic variability, so can select the best plants to grow on. Fresh seed germinates pretty well as I remember - they might need some winter cold to encourage germination, so sow early.

https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/ Willhave skirrets again soon. Their website shows sold out but they told me they will be back in stock shortly.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:I did not know about this 'suikerwortel'. Might be one of the forgotten vegetables ('vergeten groenten') that aren't grown much anymore.
I found out I can order the seeds from a seed company in my region. But I hope to find a grower where I can buy a plant.

Rühlemanns sells both plants and seeds:  https://www.kraeuter-und-duftpflanzen.de/pflanzen-saatgut/zatar-zuckerwurzel/z-einzelsorten/zuckerwurzel-pflanze

I have tried to grow skirret and under my conditions roots are small and thin, under lush greenery above ground. I let it self-seed, but I no longer try to eat it these days, too much work compared to yield.

Richard Gorny wrote:I have tried to grow skirret and under my conditions roots are small and thin, under lush greenery above ground. I let it self-seed, but I no longer try to eat it these days, too much work compared to yield.

What kind of conditions do you grow in?

Experimental Farm Network has now published their 2025 online catalog. As of writing this post, skirret seed is now available for purchase.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Experimental Farm Network has now published their 2025 online catalog. As of writing this post, skirret seed is now available for purchase.

Mine are on the way!

Randy Bachman wrote:

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Experimental Farm Network has now published their 2025 online catalog. As of writing this post, skirret seed is now available for purchase.

Mine are on the way!

Mine too!

Timothy Norton wrote:

Randy Bachman wrote:

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Experimental Farm Network has now published their 2025 online catalog. As of writing this post, skirret seed is now available for purchase.

Mine are on the way!

Mine too!

Me three!
Thanks for the reminder, Joylynn!

I think local bees here would enjoy the flower, as would I - they are truly nice to look at.  

Randy Bachman wrote:

Richard Gorny wrote:I have tried to grow skirret and under my conditions roots are small and thin, under lush greenery above ground. I let it self-seed, but I no longer try to eat it these days, too much work compared to yield.

What kind of conditions do you grow in?

Raised bed filled mostly with compost, built on sandy soil.

Richard Gorny wrote:Raised bed filled mostly with compost, built on sandy soil.

May be a bit dry perhaps? What is your summer temperature and rainfall like? It seems to like it with me, and my summer is very cool and fairly damp.

There is potential to improve the yield through selection, if you get seed set. The biggest effort is in digging it up - that is the downside of root crops!

Nancy Reading wrote:

Richard Gorny wrote:Raised bed filled mostly with compost, built on sandy soil.

May be a bit dry perhaps? What is your summer temperature and rainfall like? It seems to like it with me, and my summer is very cool and fairly damp.

There is potential to improve the yield through selection, if you get seed set. The biggest effort is in digging it up - that is the downside of root crops!

Your rainfall is three times biggger than mine, and recently we have extremely hot and dry summers on top of that.
Advantage of raised bed is that digging root crops is very easy.

I got skirret offsets from Alison about 8 years ago and have been growing it since. We're on clay. It grows well, with good sized roots, particularly in fertile soil.

What I like about the growing is skirret is drought tolerant and likes damp soil, it's adaptable! What I like even more is the taste. My coworker tried it and announced we should grow it field scale. I'm still trying on that one.

The young growth in Spring is susceptible to snail munching and it will rarely recover from this. That's one propagation-proliferation issue from seed - they don't grow much in the first year (3' above ground?) so slugs and snails can wipe them out. Older plants, though, you can reliably get 3-6 offsets per plant per year: dig and harvest the roots, tease and shake the tangle apart, replant an ever-expanding patch of skirret.

I don't find slugs affect the plant once established, and to be honest I don't remember it being a particular problem for the seedlings. I might have lost some though.
Ryan do you get a good seed set? That's the one thing that I'd like to improve, then I'd have a chance of selecting for particular characteristics.

I am so hyped, I stumbled upon an older video made by Edible Acres which grows in my same zone and climate.



Hope others might enjoy.

That link to the EFN store was far too tempting. It had just about everything that was on my " want" list and I've added some skirret seeds too!
Considering how well sunchokes did here last year, I'm excited to add another perennial root crop.

Timothy Norton wrote:I am so hyped, I stumbled upon an older video made by Edible Acres which grows in my same zone and climate.
Hope others might enjoy.

Thanks for sharing that Timothy - I would say that plant is a few years old - maybe it could have done with digging last year, it has got a bit congested.
I've made a start on 'project sugar root' and dug up about 4 of my plants today - got just over 1kg of good roots to play with . My method of harvest/division is slightly different: I don't worry about doing it in water - I guess in warmer weather it might be an issue, especially if you're not planting straight away. I just dig the root ball up as gently as possible, then knock off the loose soil. After that, I pull off the larger, more useful storage roots, but I leave the smaller ones attached to the little growing plantlets. To my mind, they are more useful to the plant than to me - aren't they there to give it a growth boost in the spring? I find by pulling off the good roots the plant naturally starts to break up into individual babies.
It probably depends what your winter is like, but I can dig, harvest, divide and replant anytime the plant is dormant, unless the ground is really frozen hard. We got a thaw last night, so I took the opportunity today to do it. Now I've got loads of babies to give away and plant!