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domesticate and harvest cassava root, the best calorie-dense meals plant to develop and the ninth hottest crop on the 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 in style selection for a calorie-dense meals plant.
For novice gardeners who reside in a temperate clime, cassava is a wonderful selection to realize confidence by getting a giant win on the board rapidly.
Optimum Clime
Even when you get the occasional freeze, cassava can nonetheless be a sensible choice to develop.
For instance, final winter we had a number of nights under freezing.
I wasn’t precisely positive defend my cassava crops as they had been throughout 8 toes tall.
This was far too excessive to cowl. So, I selected to chop them again to a couple inches above the bottom after which defend the roots with a tarp.
The end result was precisely as I had hoped.
The cassava crops 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 under, you wish to attempt your hand at rising cassava, I’d 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 a couple of cuttings after they harvest the basis! The image under offers you a tough concept of the dimensions that’s excellent.
Plant the cuttings in soil and water each different day or so. In my expertise, as soon as established, it grows effectively irrespective of if the soil is moist, dry, or simply proper.
You may 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 well-liked technique.
Cassava sprouts and grows like a weed! Actually inside a couple of days, the brand new cassava plant will likely 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 couple of yr previous, it’s time to harvest.
As you possibly can see within the video, my first plant was knocked over in a storm with enormous 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 regularly develop into inedible.
One other suggestion is to a minimum of 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 doable, clear and peel the roots rapidly and freeze what you received’t cook dinner instantly.
Cooking Cassava
My subsequent put up and video about cassava that I’m engaged on proper now could be put together and revel in it on the house menu!
Keep tuned!
