Yacon plant - Smallanthus Sonchifolius

I have a nice tall plant growing in a container. I just measured it this morning and it was 7 feet tall.

This is my first year growing Yacon. I used a hinged growing container so that I can harvest the tubers easily.


They have been growing since mid March.

I had 2 other plants in the front of my house but the chipmunks ate the tubers about a month ago

Who else here grows Yacon?

I do! Mine are in the ground, in two separate unfenced locations. The deer like the leaves. This is their 3rd year? They hover around 3 feet tall. This spring is the second year some overwintered here. I am still surprised about that!

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:This is their 3rd year? They hover around 3 feet tall. This spring is the second year some overwintered here. I am still surprised about that!

I’m surprised too. I didn’t think they were that hardy. I have one in the middle of the yard in the ground. It is about 4 feet tall.

Well, they aren't supposed to be.

i grow several hundred yacon plants every year. in their mulched beds in their current field, they top out at five or six feet but i’ve grown wider, denser plantings that ended up a bit more than 7 feet tall.

occasionally i’ve missed some harvesting and every now and then i’ll get a few that make it through the winter. it’s not too surprising, really. they’re perennial, just not freeze-hardy. if it doesn’t freeze deep enough to completely kill off the rhizomes, and some of the ones deep enough to avoid freezing don’t get destroyed by rodents, they can come back. i suspect john, being in a warmer zone than either of us, could get even better winter survival given some degree of rodent control. deep mulch can help protect from deeper freezing but also can invite the little chewers.

i do prefer the comfort of some degree of control over the circumstances of winter storage, all variables considered.

I do, as a replant perennial, as we usually get one deep freeze each winter.  I have an attractive red variety my friend N shared with me.

In a good hear, they can too 6f high, and we get lovely orange 'daisy' flowers on them.

This year has been a drought from our early Spring at the start of March until it finally has broken at the start of September.

Despite watering as much as we sensibly can (with insufficient rainwater harvesting capacity over winter, and looming city water shortages), they're barely 3ft this year.

I am the only one who eats them, raw or lightly cooked. Tasty. But we don't like the leaves.

We haven't eaten any yet. I'm trying to build up a population before making meals from it. Maybe next year. I am not the best at doing timely harvest, storage.

I couldn't get mine to survive overwinter in Memphis and the ones I tried to save in the basement to  plant this year got eaten by rat invaders.

Really nice sweet flavor - like a carrot with the texture and juiciness of a pear - but I'm spoiled by the ease and hardiness of Jerusalem artichokes and Chinese yams as perennial root crops.

One member of or food Co op offered them one year and I discovered that the sweet taste was good for diabetics because it doesn't digest into glucose. During the winter he decided not to grow them again so he sold the Corms.  The part you eat is the energy storage tuber.  In between will be one or more corms which will sprout in the spring.  So this is a case of eating your cake and having it too.  In fact the first year rodents ate all the storage roots but not the corms. So I brought them into the greenhouse and planned them with my winter potatoes.  The corms will grow without the storage roots but if a small one is left attached it gives them a boost. They do well in the summer heat of the greenhouse.

pic from yesterday at my (absolute jungle of a) main yacon field, squash, iron weed, and all.

Hans Quistorff wrote:They do well in the summer heat of the greenhouse.

Yes I find that they will survive outside here, but only just and not always - I have one hanging on in a pot which I hope will over winter. In the warmth of my polytunnel they reached 4 -5 ft and flowered, whereas outside only maybe 18 inches.

it’s interesting hearing about how they fare in various places! here, they sag and suffer a bit during the hotter parts of summer days (~85+°F or ~30+°C), and i wouldn’t want them in a hoop house.

Corms were planted in sand on compost on 12 inch deep wicking bed that runs the length of front.  Ring was topped with leaves when planted in January. Tops froze in hard freeze in December and tubers harvested.
Leaves drupe in heat but refresh over night from the wicking reservoir.
Fig to the left will be moving to the right where the heat storage barrel and seed starting rack is to a larger wicking barrel.

The one in the center of the yard is just over 4 feet tall. The rodents haven’t touched it. I lost two at ground level in the front yard to rodents. The one in the crate with a hinged front is well over 7 feet tall now and I took a picture of my first flower. Here in Winston Salem I hope it grows for at least 6 more weeks.

I hope to plant a long row in the spring if I can get enough propagules overwintered.