Yacon is closely related to Jerusalem Artichoke. Here you can find out how to grow, care for and use the sweet tuber in your own garden.
Never heard of Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius)? Then it's about time. The super tuber is full of good ingredients, has few calories and is even said to help you lose weight. In terms of taste, it can be compared to pears or melons. Yacon is still relatively unknown to us, but with the right tools it can also grow in your garden. We tell you the best yacon varieties, what to look for when buying them, how best to grow the tuber in your garden and how to use the yacon root.
Yacon: origin and characteristics
Yacon comes from the highlands of the Andes and was already valued by the Incas as a medicinal and useful plant. Yacon is now no longer only cultivated in South America, but also in Asia, Oceania, the USA and Europe. It belongs to the daisy family (Asteraceae or Compositae), which is why the yellow flower resembles the sunflower (Helianthus annuus). The plant is herbaceous and can grow up to two meters in height. In its tropical home, the plant is perennial, but since it does not tolerate frost, it has to be stored as a rhizome in winter. Closely related to Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) and sweet potato (Ipomea batata), the roots of Yacon are also edible. Compared to sweet potatoes, these are not floury, but crunchy and fresh and taste fruity-sweet.
Yacon Varieties
There are many different Yacon varieties, but only a limited number of them are currently available in Germany. The Yacon tubers differ mainly in their color and sweetness. Roots range in color from almost white to light brown to purple to dark red. The color of the tubers depends on the variety. Another difference between the varieties is the sugar content. Yacon tubers are very high in fructo-oligosaccharides, a type of sugar that makes the tubers very sweet. Because of that sweetness and thefruity taste, the Incas also called their yacon root "underground growing fruit". Depending on the variety, the tubers can be less sweet to very sweet. The following varieties can all be grown in German climatic conditions.
‘Bekya’: The variety is characterized by early flowering and a high yield. The tubers have a brownish skin and white flesh. 'Bekya' is one of the less sweet yacon varieties.
'Morado': The Yacon variety 'Morado' is already widespread in Germany. The bulbs are purple and very sweet.
'Cajamarca': This variety is characterized by a high yield. The tuber color is reddish to purple.
'Quinault': The yacon variety 'Quinault' flowers early and has a high sugar content. The tubers are purple.
Buy Yacon
Since this is a relatively new vegetable, buying Yacon can't be that easy. Yacon for your garden can be bought as a plant or rhizome (sprout). Both are available from specialized online retailers. When deciding whether young plants or rhizomes are preferred, the following should be considered: Plantlets that have already been planted have a head start on the rhizomes in spring and grow faster. However, compared to the rhizomes, the plants are usually more expensive and more sensitive to shipping. Since you can grow the rhizomes yourself to young plants, we recommend buying Yacon rhizomes.
If you find yacon tubers in the shop or at the weekly market, you can only eat them but not plant them. The plant forms two different types of roots: the edible tubers, which serve as storage organs, and the rhizomes for propagation. Yacon can only be propagated via the rhizomes. The good news is that you only need to buy yacon in the first year of cultivation, as the tuber is easy to grow yourself. You can find more about this in the chapter "Propagating Yacon".
Tip: If you bought the rhizome through an online retailer, check the condition upon receipt. It is often the case that the rhizomes have become somewhat rubbery and may have grown during transport. Soak the rhizomes in room temperature water for about 8 hours and they should firm up again. After that put them in sand or potting soil without fertilizer. At a temperature below 10 ° C, the rhizomes can be stored well until the time of planting.
Yaconplant
Yacon is very sensitive to frost. Planting too early does not pay off: if the young plants or roots are caught by frost, they will be severely damaged. Because of this, you should wait until after the Ice Saints (mid-May) to plant to ensure your yacon is not damaged by frost. The rhizomes can either be planted directly in the garden or grown in pots.
Prepare yacon in pot
By promoting your yacon in pots, you can give it a big head start. You can start about two months before you expect the last frost. If the last frost is expected around mid-May, you can start growing in the pot in mid-March. Make a hole about 3 to 5 cm deep and place the piece of rhizome with the cut side down and the buds on top. Then cover it with soil and water it. The pot can stand on the windowsill or in the heated greenhouse. If the temperatures outside no longer fall below freezing, the young plants can be planted in the garden.
Planting Yacon: location and requirements
Yacon isn't very demanding about its location as long as it doesn't freeze. The tuber thrives best on light, sandy soil. However, Yacon does not like waterlogging at all. Yacon prefers to stand in sunny places where the sun shines on it from morning to evening. Since the plants can grow up to 2 meters in height, a wind-protected location is advisable. In terms of nutritional requirements, Yacon is very frugal. It requires little nitrogen and phosphorus, but there should be sufficient potassium in the soil.
Overview of Yacon's location claims:
- Sunny all day
- Sheltered
- Light, well-aerated soils
- No waterlogging
- Low nutritional requirements
Planting Yacon: Instructions
If the rhizomes are planted directly in the garden, proceed as follows:
Loosen the soil well. If the soil is too compact and firm, sand can be incorporated into the soil. You are also welcome to work compost into the soil, as Yacon likes a high proportion of organic material. The rhizomes should be placed about 5 to 10 cm deep in the ground. For this, a hole is dug and the rhizome with the cut side down and theSeedling placed up in the hole. Fill the hole with the excavation and water well.
If you have grown your yacon in a pot, carefully remove the root ball of the young plant from the pot. Then carefully loosen up the root ball. The soil should also be well loosened and enriched with compost. The young plant is then placed in a prepared hole and watered well. A planting distance of at least 80 cm is recommended in the row. There should be at least a meter of space between rows.
Regardless of whether you plant a rhizome or a young plant: Both are happy about a mulch layer. You can use organic material such as leaves, bark mulch or lawn clippings for mulching. The germs of the rhizome will easily grow through a mulch layer. With the young plant, the mulch is carefully distributed around the plant. This protects the soil from drying out and suppresses weeds.
Yacon can also be grown in containers. Note that the plant grows very large and forms a lot of leaf mass. A large pot is therefore absolutely necessary, otherwise the harvest will be disappointing. It is best to use a bucket that can hold about 75 liters for Yacon.
Tip: Yacon grows slowly after planting. So it can take several months until enough leaf mass is formed and the ground is covered. At this stage, the uncovered soil offers the best conditions for unwanted weeds. One way to counteract this is to plant Yacon in mixed culture. To do this, select plants that are fast growing and harvested before the yacon plant becomes too large. Salads, radishes or turnips are ideal for this.
Planting Yacon Summary:
- Select a sunny, sheltered location
- Loosen the soil well, mix in straw if necessary
- Incorporate compost into the soil
- Dig a 5-10 cm deep hole
- Insert rhizome or young plant
- Fill the hole with excavation
- Water well
- Distribute mulch layer
- Planting distances: Min. 80 cm between plants; at least 1 meter between rows
Propagating Yacon
Yacon forms two types of storage organs: Large storage roots suitable for consumptionare and rhizomes. You can cut these rhizomes into many smaller pieces. When cutting a yacon rhizome, it is not uncommon to end up with 20 or more rhizome pieces that can be individually transplanted into a new yacon plant. The rhizome should be divided in such a way that it can sprout later when planted. To do this, it is best to cut it into pieces that should have at least 2 nodes, preferably even 5.
The following is recommended for storing the rhizomes: Store the rhizome crowns as a whole. So don't cut them open before you start planting. Cut open rhizomes allow the individual pieces to dry out faster. Do not remove all storage roots from the crown, but leave some of the small ones hanging. This improves the shelf life considerably.
Store the crown in dry sand or soil at about 4°C. It is important that the temperature never falls below freezing. You don't have to water the rhizome crown. If the crown gets wet, it will sprout or rot. However, it should not dry out completely. It is best to store them in a place with high humidity. The rhizome crowns will last about six months under the recommended storage conditions.
Maintain Yacon
Once your Yacon has been planted, it will actually grow by itself. Little care is required. Immediately after planting, you should weed regularly to prevent weeds from spreading. As the plant grows larger, it develops very large leaves. Then weeding is no longer necessary. In addition to large leaves, Yacon is a very large plant overall. In German gardens, Yacon can grow up to two meters tall. You should therefore support particularly large plants. If stems snap, the broken stems provide entry points for diseases and pests. If some tubers grow out of the ground, cover them with soil again. Otherwise, the tubers above the ground are good food for snails and other wolverines.
Casting Yacon
In Quechua, the language of the Incas, Yacon means "water bulb". On the one hand, because a lot of water is stored in the tuber, on the other hand, because yacon needs a lot of water to grow. The water is stored in the tuber, and the large leaves also offer plenty of space for evaporation. Sufficient watering is therefore very important. After planting shouldshould be watered regularly, at the latest whenever the top layer of soil has dried. As the plant grows and forms more and more leaf mass, the need for water also increases. If the summer is hot and it hardly rains, it may have to be watered every day. If Yacon is not supplied with enough water, this quickly has a negative effect on tuber formation. When yacon is grown in a container, irrigation is particularly important. It is best to check the moisture in the soil daily. There should be no waterlogging, but if you water the yacon plant in the morning in summer, water can remain in the saucer. By the evening, however, the plant should have used up all the water. In autumn you can then slowly reduce the watering.
Fertilize Yacon
Yacon is a heavy consumer of potassium and will therefore benefit from fertilizers rich in potassium. However, you should be careful with too much nitrogen, because too much nitrogen can restrict the root growth of Yacon. If the soil has been enriched with compost before planting, nitrogen supplements are no longer necessary. The phosphorus requirement of the plant is rather low and can be covered with doses of organic long-term fertilizer. For fertilizing your yacon plants, we recommend our Plantura organic universal fertilizer, which ideally covers the nutrient requirements of the super tuber.
Harvesting and storing yacon
Depending on the climate, the harvest time for yacon varies from mid-October to mid-November. With light frosts, the leaves of the yacon plant begin to die and dry up. When the signs of leaf senescence become apparent, you can harvest the tubers. Yacon can be dug up with a spade or garden fork. Even with very careful digging, some tubers will probably break off, which cannot be avoided. Once the root balls are dug up, remove the larger storage roots, leaving the small ones attached to the rhizome. Tubers and rhizomes can be sprayed clean with a hose and then laid out to dry. The tubers and rhizomes should dry well to prevent mold or rot from forming.
Dried, the rhizomes are stored as described in the chapter "Propagating Yacon". The tubers should be stored in a cool and dry place. The longer the tubers are stored, the more the fructosesalary, and they get cuter. Immediately after harvest, Yacon has a very mild, watery taste. The full aroma unfolds only after a longer storage period. The tubers can be placed in sunlight to speed up the ripening process. However, Yacon tubers should not dry out during storage. To prevent this, you can place a bowl of water next to the stored harvest and refill it regularly. Alternatively, you can store the tubers in containers with sand, which also prevents them from drying out. If stored carefully, the tubers often last up to nine months.
Yacon: Ingredients and Use
The Yacon tuber mainly consists of water and carbohydrates. Although the tasty root is made up of 80% carbohydrates, these are mainly indigestible sugars. Inulin and fructooligosaccharides are sugars that cannot be digested by humans. These sugars are said to reduce the feeling of hunger, stimulate the metabolism and promote a he althy intestinal flora (hence the claim that Yacon can help you lose weight). Overall, the tuber contains very few calories: freshly harvested yacon has around 15 calories per 100 g. During storage, the tuber converts the indigestible sugars into fructose, and the calorie content increases to a still very low 22 calories per 100g. Other ingredients of Yacon are calcium, phosphorus and vitamin C in small amounts. Like its brother Jerusalem artichoke, yacon is good to eat raw. But Yacon is also great for cooking, and its mild sweetness makes it compatible with many different flavors. Even with long cooking times, it remains relatively firm and crisp. Try yacon in stir-fries, soups and stews, curries or as chips.
Yacon Syrup
A common use of yacon is yacon syrup. This can be used as a sugar substitute such as agave syrup for sweetening. The advantage of Yacon syrup over conventional sugars is that it has a high proportion of fructo-oligosaccharides, which cannot be digested and do not raise blood sugar levels.
To make yacon syrup, the tubers must be juiced in a juicer or juicer. The Yacon juice obtained is then filtered and boiled down until it has the consistency of syrup. The syrup can then be used to sweeten desserts and drinks, for baking and forcooking.
Yacon: Common Diseases and Pests
Discovering holes and feeding spots in the leaves of your yacon plants is a sign that your yacon has been infested with pests. Snails like to feast on the young leaves of the plant and should therefore be collected regularly. The corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) can cause damage to the stalks. This inflicts feeding damage on the stalks until the stalks break. The corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgif.webpera) can damage the tuber. Voles also enjoy the yacon tubers from time to time.
To prevent pest infestation, you should change the location of your Yacon every year so that pests cannot establish themselves. Diseases that can affect the yacon plant include fusarium fungi on the roots and powdery mildew on the leaves. In order to protect the plants from fungal diseases, it is important to keep wide planting distances so that the air can circulate between the plants. Once the plant is infested, it can be treated with a biological antifungal agent. It is best not to plant yacon in close proximity to Jerusalem artichokes or sunflowers as these can be affected by the same diseases and pests.