yacon

after some unnaturally extended warmth the season has begun to turn...i saw flurries this morning and the yacon is telling me a similar story this afternoon...the plants are signaling the end of the season clearly so i picked one from a container and the only one i planted in the ground to harvest today...the containerized plant produced nine tubers of varying sizes and a large rhizome while the in ground plant produced five elongated tubers and a smaller rhizome..on of the tubers broke while i was harvesting them so i replanted the two halves immediately to see if they will overwinter and sprout in spring...perhaps...perhaps not...i took the large rhizome ( sixth photo ) and planted it in a large container in the plant room for some winter growth...i put the smaller rhizome from the in ground plant and a few small tubers from the containerized plant in another container down there to see what comes of it...there are still three more yacon plants out there to harvest and the weather is pushing that project to the forefront...late season harvests will continue.

seasonal nexus-yacon

the top four photos are of a week's growth from two of the yacon rhizomes i planted on christmas day...yacon is a slow growing plant with a seven month ( minimum...the ones i finished in the basement went considerably longer ) season so this much growth isn't too shabby...the root crown i planted a week ago ( fifth photo ) had a rhizome that was already greening up and looking to leaf...you can see in the sixth photo it hasn't stopped working so it should do just fine...the other one ( seventh photo ) hasn't budged yet...we will be patient...the leaves i left on the yacon cuttings i took are dying back...nothing unusual about that...however the new growth in the center is still a bright green and that leaves me hopeful that the stem is rooting and there will be two more plants from cuttings..all of these plants will be finding their way outside to have a season that should last at least until septemeber, if not longer...they may in fact find their way back down into the basement where they started to finish up under the same lights...more as these come along...more when the moves to the outdoors begin.