What You Need to Know About Growing and Using Cassava as a Staple Crop
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
- Cassava is DANGEROUS, right? Well... let's take a deeper look at this staple crop.
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Inside the continental US, cassava is generally unknown to gardeners, other than immigrants from warmer climates who grow some on a backyard scale. It's high in starch and often grows to about 12’ tall.
Its palmate leaves and graceful cane-like branches are attractive in the landscape or in the garden. Cassava’s pseudonyms include yuca (with one “c,” NOT two - “yucca” is a completely unrelated species), manioc, the tapioca plant, and manihot. In Latin, it’s Manihot escuelenta.
Cassava is virtually pest-free, drought tolerant, loaded with calories, capable of good growth in poor soil - cassava is a must-have anyplace it can grow. Once it’s hit maturity, you can basically dig it at any point for a few years (though the roots may sometimes get too woody to eat). If temperatures drop to freezing, your cassava will freeze to the ground. This won’t usually kill the plant, but it does mean you need to plan your growing accordingly. In the tropics is capable of growing huge roots and living for years. If you live north of USDA Growing Zone 10, occasional frosts will knock it down. Growing it at any zone beyond 8 may be an exercise in futility. Cassava needs warm days and nights to make good roots.
Sadly, the plant contains a certain amount of cyanide, from its lovely leaves to its tasty roots. Boiling or fermenting gets a good bit of it out, so fear not. Compared to many things we eat, cassava's pretty tame.
That said, there are "sweet" varieties and "bitter" varieties of cassava. Sweet types are low in cyanide and are safe to eat after cooking to fork-tender, but bitter types are high in it and need additional processing. You're unlikely to find high-cyanide varieties in the US. I don't have any "bitter" types in my garden, and have not seen them.
All we do to make our cassava safe to eat is to cook it until it's soft, but that's because it's a "sweet" type.
The bitterness of a cassava root usually correlates to its cyanide toxicity,
Low rainfall and tough growing conditions tend to make roots more toxic. The takeaway here is that if your cassava roots taste bitter, they're probably not good to eat.
That said, over a half-billion people eat cassava on a regular basis and manage to live just fine through it, so don't get too hung up. Get sweet varieties and take care of them, and cook them well. You can also soak cassava roots for a few days before cooking to make them even safer, though we don't bother doing that with our roots.
There are Cassava cane cuttings for sale on ebay and Etsy.
Chop a sturdy stem into pieces about 1.5’ long and stick them in the ground on their sides about two inches down and cover them lightly with soil. Select cuttings that have gotten woody, with bark that is no longer young and green. You can also plant the canes vertically, about 2/3 in the the ground, or even diagonally.
Cassava likes irrigation and good soil. It will survive drought and heat. 6-12 months later (depending on care, variety and rainfall), they’ll be ready to start harvesting. To harvest, machete down the entire plant a foot or so from the ground, throw the branches to the side and start digging. Be careful, though - the roots are easy to chop through. The roots you’re looking for grow down and away from the main stem and are generally located in the first 1-2’ of soil. They’re deep brown with flaky skin. Don’t dig them too long before you’re going to process them as cassava doesn’t store well at all. Once you harvest the roots, you’ll want to chop up the rest of the plant to make a new set of canes for planting out. I snap off all the leaves and compost them, then cut the bare canes into planting size. Remember: canes that are too green tend to rot rather than root, so throw them on the compost too. Sturdy, 1-2” diameter canes are perfect.
Ensure they’re right side up by looking for the tiny little growth buds by the leaf bases. That little dot should be above the leaf’s base, not below. You can bury cut canes in a box beneath the ground for the winter, you can let your current plants freeze to the ground and just wait for spring to bring new growth back… you can put cuttings in pots and bring them inside on freezing nights, then plant out in spring… or you can get a greenhouse and always keep a few plants in there for propagative stock. The roots can be chopped and frozen raw as well - they keep quite well that way. Start learning how to grow this plant. It’s a lifesaving staple.
Very informative video. Living in south america, and running a food production biz I use cassava a lot. Its important to note: peal it before cooking as the skin has most of the toxin cyanide as mentioned in this video, but yes some in the inside too so please make sure you cook well like David mentions. makes great tortilla or pizza bases, (make a dough after cooking). Here there are 3 varieties of yuca (cassava) one is milky white on the inside and cooks fast, has a barky looking skin and pink inner skin, that is my favorite. another variety is a slighty yellow variety has a smoother brown skin and white inner skin, takes about 3 times as long to cook. Pealing yuca is like pealing plantains: chop ends then tap a cut all the way down the side and lever the peal side ways with the knife untill you can get your fingers in and unwrap it sideways. this is very easy and satisfying once you get the hang of it. one love.
What do you add to make it into a dough?! I love that idea.
@@D71219ONE you dont need to add anything, just cook it so its fluffy. cook in vapor then break it up, letting as much mositure out as possible then put it in a food processor with a little olive oil and rock or sea salt.
Bought my cassava from Pete Kanaris’ Green Dreams nursery in Florida. Has done well and had small edible roots this fall. I’m taking cuttings and planting in my gardens in Zone 8a and 8b.
David the Good crop specific series… I dig! Do them all!!! Haha
Still waiting on Rachel to put up a cooking video on how she feeds this to the family
Good point, I have no idea how to cook Cassava after I grow it.
@@johnliberty3647 Boil till fork tender, season well and pour very hot olive oil over it with garlic
@@johnliberty3647i think just like potatoes
I was just about to go down a youtube rabbit hole on it
@@johnliberty3647you can cook it in so many ways, more uses than potatoes
Thank you for the excellent video. will be harvesting my cassava (yuca) to celebrate December 24th which Hispanic countries usually celebrate (I'm Cuban). It's a staple side dish to our traditional rice, black beans and roasted pork eaten on that day. I will boil them then & make a "mojo" for them by sautéing onions and garlic in olive oil and pouring it on top of the hot yuca. Or we make "bunuelos", a type of fried dough made of boiled yuca, "boniato" ( a white sweet potatoe with red skin), some flour to bind, pinch of salt and anise. Roll it out into a rope, make it into a figure eight and fry. Once plated, served with cane sugar syrup. It's my first time growing it so I hope it goes well.
I love your comment because you explained how you prepared it for eating. Thank you.
@@shawneegrows i know it was a lengthy comment. But i like seeing how people prepare their harvest.
How long should the stem cuttings be?
@juliogonzalez9723 i cut the stem about 12 inches. Since I live in South Florida and our "soil" is basically sand, i put some organic potting soil, compost, earthworm castings, and an organic all purpose fertilizer and mix it up with native soil to give it a good start. I place the stem about 7 inches or so in the soil and water it in. Hope this helps and good luck.
You can try shorter lengths for much better propagations
This will increase your overall yield
Your long cuts are still better for root yield
But if you need more stalks like me try this
We grow alot of this. My wife is Puerto Rico, so they eat it every meal. After tasting it , I had to smuggle some cuttings back. Great video.
Good to see you, David the Good! We really would like to see you more often. With only 10 children, a ton of garden, writing music, writing books and composting everything , you surely have plenty of spare time to make more videos for us. 😆
Thanks.
I got lucky and scored the last cassava at my local nursery a few months ago. . Made about a dozen cuttings from it. Big score 😊
Good find!
I could grow them well in Tampa, but am having a hard time growing them 60 miles north of Tampa. I will try planting the canes in pots and bringing them in in cold weather. Thank you for this video.
I overwintered mine last year, they did fine but I had to drag them outside every opportunity or they dropped leaves
David, your channel is absolutely awesome! Thank you so very much for putting all this information into interesting and useful videos. Loving them! :)
Thank you, Jill.
Enjoyed the '50s public service video vibe on this one. I can't grow cassava here until/unless I start playing with four season greenhouses, but it was entertaining and informative anyway.
Can you speak about the effect of high bicarbonates in ones well water when used for irrigation. I'm in zone 9b and have had trouble for a long time with this problem. I essentially ran out of other things to try, had my water tested for irrigation suitability (Logan Labs). It came back one point below extremely hard. I dug a ditch, put in pipe and tied my irrigation system into my pond water, which tested extremely good for irrigation. There was an immediate difference in the plants. Others may be able to capitalize on this and not take as long to figure it out as I did. Good irrigation water is extremely important.
Add some vinegar to your water it’s will react with it just don’t do too much
That is not an issue I've dealt with, but I am glad you figured it out. If you post a video on it, I would re-post it.
I literally learned all my farming / gardening from you! I live in citrus county Florida… land of dog fennel and prickly pears. We do REALLY well with your books tho, thanks!
Bay County here- dog fennel is the WORST.
Sorry, I forgot to thank you for uploading this informative, and educational video, David. Love your work.
I've had a long history with Cassava. I was first introduced to Cassava by South Sea Islanders who taught me how to grow it. Years later, I had friends who grew cassava in their yard. That is, their suburban block was all Cassava. I have grown it myself, and have eaten it. When I get back on the road and eventually find a temporary home, I'll grow Cassava.
On a side note, bitter-tasting zucchini is also somewhat toxic, as is green potatoes.
Sprouted kidney beans are also very toxic. Other types of beans and other legumes are actually full of lectins and some other antinutrients, and in almost all of those, soaking and sprouting reduces the antinutrient content. (But NEVER sprout kidney beans. I avoid sprouting cannelini beans too, because they are white kidney beans.)
And when eating tomatoes, it is best to eat neither the skin nor seeds, as they can set those of us with arthritis off due to lectin content. Garden huckleberries (another nightshade) should only be eaten when fully black as the green berries are toxic. Colocasia (elephant ear) root is edible, but must be cooked thoroughly to neutralize the toxins.
@@marahdolores8930 I've only ever eaten small seed sprouts. Wheat, mustard etc. I don't suffer from arthritis (yet) so tomatoes aren't an issue. I do some urban foraging but I am more knowledgeable about Australian native herbs, fruits, tubers etc. I've been taught how to process some native toxic tubers and seeds but choose not to eat them.
Found the video finally. I figured there was one if I just kept looking. However I have still not found anyone local to me that has this plant. But persistence will eventually pay off and I will find some. I am not a big fan of buying things from eBay and people I know nothing about, well when it comes to plants. Seen way to many people complaining what they ordered and what they got were two different things. I bought from you because I knew it would be what I ordered.
Thanks for sharing ideas about cassava, here in Philippines more of farmers planted it slanting in the ground. And usually we cooked the young leaves for viand...
This video was really informative, and helpful! I'm trying to grow unusual root vegetables for the USA, such as cassava and ube/purple yam, so videos like these are super helpful! I loved the presentation. It's hard to find videos with a good presentation for the more uncommon crops. Also, I love the distinction between yuca and yucca. I see so many stores mislabel it as yucca, and I'm just like "yucca refers to plants such as Joshua tree or Spanish dagger, not cassava!", so seeing someone make a point of distinguishing between the two is great!
Thank you. I made it for people like you.
Best video on this plant I have found. Very well done.
David, you're the silliest gardener who's so highly informative.. or is it the most highly informative gardener who's silly... forget it! Thanks!!
after boiling them make yuca fries about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick with a garlic cilantro mayo ...we typically do it with left overs ..also a oil based mojo after the are done is really good
In Brazil, we can use the ground leaves to make a stew, we call "maniçoba", quite delicious
Another great informative video. Thanks again for the cutting you gave me.
You bet - I hope to see you tomorrow.
Thanks for all your tips, tricks & hacks! Can you do a vid on iguanas? They are decimating my FL food forest and growing garlic isn’t working to keep them out-I’m having to cover everything sadly! (Zone 10A) maybe you have more advice? I don’t want to kill them, even though they are invasive! All my best!
Do you have the South Florida Gardening Survival Guide? There's a long interview with an iguana hunter in there - all the info I could gather.
Thank you 🙏 I really enjoyed this information, motivational. I laughed when you added yourself as someone who disagrees with yourself! 😂
You can store cassava for years as a flour which are wonderful to make dumplings, noodles, and porridge with about the same consistency as okra stew. Cassava flour is an important ingredient for the people of Laos, Cambodia, and Central Vietnam to survive the monsoon flooding season.
Recipes would be helpful!
I LOVE cassava! It's a staple in most of my West African meals.
Ive got at least 35 in the ground at my house. I even let a few cuttings sit out in the sun for a few months then decided to put a few in the ground to see what happens. They still sprouted. These are a fun beautiful crop I would not know about if it was not for David. Only thing i can say bad about them is they do not like wind. Have to fix some of them after Hurricane Nichole yesterday. Hopefully none broke off the roots.
I used mine as a windbreak. So far holding up well against strong ocean breezes - not cyclonic winds
Great video. So serious I was looking for the professor glasses.😁
I’m looking forward to giving this plant a shot on our land. I’m having problems sourcing root stock as I live in Spain and not many people seem to be growing it. I would use Etsy but the import laws are quite strict. Great video thanks a ton.
I and a couple friends are harvesting Cassava right now, and have run into a dilemma. We've scoured the internet and discovered that there seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to preparing Cassava.
On the one hand, we should boil it to cook off the cyanide, but whenever we encounter any recipes for making Cassava flour, there is never any mention of cooking off the cyanide. What's really going on here? If we want to make Cassava flour or tapioca starch, do we need to boil it or not? If not, what happened to the cyanide?
Great video, David. Very interested in your growing experiment for Cassava in our zone. Hoping for some cuttings to appear in the Etsy store in the coming years. Sweet potatoes have been good to us. Regular potatoes, not so much. I may have to finally give true yams a try next season.
Just leave the cuttings in an empty pot (5:01) - no soil at all - in a warm dry spot. They don’t need moisture at all. In spring when they start to sprout plant them out again.
Thanks, David! I will leave it in the ground for winter,here in Molino FL. I planted little bit late ,didn't grow too much. Got the stock from a malaysian seller on eBay
Okay. I'm in Zone 8 here in North East Texas. (NOT Dallas!) Cassava looks interesting but, how do you COOK it? Fried? Boiled and mashed? Baked? With what? Carrots and onions? Ham and cabbage? If I grow it I'm going to want to eat it so I need to know this stuff.
We cook it to fork tender, then sometimes pat it dry and fry it in oil to make it crispy. Other times we just throw chopped pieces into stew to cook down.
Our family either boils or fries them. We pour some olive oil on top and you can eat this with fried fish, chicken, just about any savory meat dish. The cassava is a starch like potato so it has no significant taste on its own other than the salt in the water you boiled it in. Look at it like a plain flavor you need to add a spark of taste to in the meat or a soup/stew you add it to. Cassava fries is a good way to introduce it to your family and kiddies - yum yum! Did someone say "seasoned" cassava fries? Once you try it, you will be able to imagine great dishes to use it in or along side. Another great dish is with salt cod / herring - strong salt or smoky flavors with plain cassava makes for a good combo. ENJOY!
If you live in Jacksonville it is available at Eat Your Yard Jax on the northwest side of town.
Thanks David going to try to find sweet variety of cassava cuttings. Got some Ube yam bubles coming from a friend in Louisiana hope to have them growing come spring and going to pick up some Asian yams from our local Asian store and cut them up and do the ash covering like you said as well. I'm a type 2 diabetic and been reading good things about yams above potatoes👍😁 !
Thanks Dave, you're the best 👍
Just like pokeweed, not nearly as scary as it seems at first. 👵
Thank you David for all the good info
Very informative, thanks David!
Thank you for that very informative video! 👍
Great Video! will be on the next rotation list!
I'm in Eastern Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia and would love to grow something like this... The land around me is very fertile.
I would grow Chinese yams and potatoes there.
Love this informative video. And thanks to your inspiration I’m looking at doing a land race pumpkin. I have 4 varieties picked out so far. Seminole, Cherokee tan, calabaza, and Thelma sweet potato. Do you have any suggestions for south Mississippi
"Tan Cheese" worked well in Central Florida.
This looks like a great project. I'll have to find some around Tampa for sure.
I’m 10b on Terra Ceia Island. Cut down almost 4 acres of Brazilian Peppers, almost finished building our house. I want to start a food forest but I have a problem with grasshoppers over here and they seem to like the sand bc they can stay hidden in plain sight on the ground. I got so discouraged. I had purchased 20 fruit trees and a few coffee plants which stayed in their original pots for months while I tried to figure out what to do. They were dying, I felt horrible! I Do have what I call a relaxation station in my yard, a grouping of about 20 cabbage palm trees. I had a thought that I should plant all the trees back there in the mottled sunlight and fertile dirt. We planted them, scattered them all around the oasis and they LOVE it!!! They are thriving and I’m so excited! My next thought is to slowly expand and plant other trees on the outskirts of the oasis, expanding the forest. When I saw the cassava pics in the video, I knew I will start with them. I also have a privacy issue I need to take care of, the Brazilian Peppers gave tons of privacy but now I feel we’ll be living in a fishbowl if we don’t plant something that will grow quickly. As another asked, can these be used as a privacy screen? I love your books and truly appreciate all the information, thanks so much, David!
A multi-row hedge of cassava would block some view. I think you had a great idea with mixing in the trees with the cabbage palms. Trees really seem to like being with other trees. Good work.
@@davidthegood thank you for responding! ☺️ Multi row, okey dokey!👍🏼🌺 I will get on it and keep you apprised, we want to make this land a jungle oasis. We are also directly across the street from Florida’s oldest archeological site, an Indian mound, and are hopeful they will be happy with our cultivating the land. We even had a shaman come and ask for permission 🙏🏼
ECHO Global Farm in Ft. Myers, FL carries cassava plants for sale. It's where I bought mine earlier this year.
I don't have to cover this plant now. Great video!
Awesome video.
I'm so stoked! My cassava roots will be here today! 😁
In the Philippines, they call this kamoteng kahoy. It is my favorite thing in ginataan (Filipino curry).
Thanks, I am getting a start from a friend!
At least this has inspired me to buy some at the store and see if I like it. Digging a two foot deep hole is quite a project! If you leave the deeper roots buried, will they sprout up again?
I plant them 2-4" deep. If you leave some stem in the ground, it will likely re-grow.
Great conversation! Thank you for sharing. #Keepupthegreatwork I am still brewing my compost tea and about to fertilize my greenhouse seedlings with it. I will let you know the outcome after application. I named it "David The 'Good-Good' tea"! 😁 #Keepupthegreatwork
It grows fast so I am also using it to provide shade to my young fruit trees till they get established.
❓Can we use the waxed roots we're able to buy at the supermarket in S. Florida for replanting? 💛 Thank you
He said no, they weren’t usable…
@@lis819 Thank you very much. Blessings🕊
One question I always had is: in zone 9b, can you keep the cassava in the ground over winter and then harvest and eat it the following summer, for example? I am seeking to be able to harvest cassava any time of year in zone 9b....but we do have an occasional light freeze every year.
Yes - we did that.
it would be super helpful to have a video on the techniques people use to stretch their cassava season. I couldn't quite visualize what you were describing with the buried box. I'm in 7b (about 6.5 months without freeze) and we often stretch the season of our warm whether plants by growing them in pots and bringing them in the winter. I have seen this this with lemon, lime, orange, papaya, etc. Do you know anyone who does that with cassava?
Ok im hooked, but how well would it do in hard red clay soil??? Just wondering if i could use this to break up and improve the soil.
We grew it in hard clay, but hacked the ground up into raised mounds before planting. It did well.
I have about 8lbs on their 4th day of fermentation for fufu. By far my preferred way to eat it
We call it Manioke too 😊
i would like to see a prep and cooking video.
In st cloud Florida in an empty lot there is like a dump truck load of this stuff growing
Thank you so much. I will look for it today to try next year.
I swear, David stay nicely medicated on that Gañjyā
Not I.
@@davidthegood
Alright Prabhujī, I'll take your word for it.. 😉😉😉
I got one as a gift from family friend and only figured out what it was from your channel. Unfortunately after boiling it and dumping the water it still didn't agree with me.
In Asia they grow a sweet yellow variety called KM 60. Common in Hawaii as well. Probably the finest imo
about to move to Florida 9a (still pending), I hate sweet starches so I need to read up on this plant.
Green bananas and plantains, taro/malanga/dasheen, jicama and true yams are all good ones, too.
Do the leaves tend to do well as a privacy screen or seasonal hedge?
That’s what I would like to know, too! 👀
As it gets taller, the lower leaves fall off - you would have to plant a few rows.
Nice work! Liked and subscribed
South suburbs of Chicago here
Honeybees love the cassava flower, every morning I went outside it sounded like a swarm of bees around my cassavas.
Thanks!
David, Georgia zone 7b here, I’m going to try grow cassava next year. Being from Brazil, I’d love to harvest my own. What do you think?
I think it's worth trying.
I'm also in 7b and also thinking of trying lol. Let's see what happens.
Also in 7b. Guess I'll give it a whirl too.
Please make a video on taro root as well..
Appreciate you 💜
I LOVE YUCA!!! It’s so good and I was wondering about growing my own!!!
I have what looks like 2 different cassava varieties but I don’t know what’s what lol. One is all green the other I scored at a local’s house when I visited her to swap some plants, she is from viet nam and had a red stemmed variety. Of course I came home with some, lol
LOVE YOU DAVID!!
Thank you, Brock. Back atcha.
Yucca is the NewMexico state flower
that's a southern thing right will watch anyway
Your beard is becoming epic!
Amazing video title 👏👏👏
Hahaha
@@davidthegood love you man
Thank you.
FYI from UA-cam: "Regular viewers are choosing to watch this video less often than usual, contributing to 26% fewer views
What’s going on?
Compared to previous videos on your channel, people who regularly watch your channel are clicking less on this video’s title or thumbnail
Improving the title or thumbnail of this video might increase viewership, but keep in mind that some topics may just naturally attract a smaller audience"
And now on the "clickbait" cassava video you so hated: "Views are 4.4 times higher than usual! More regular viewers are choosing to watch it, helping to increase its reach on UA-cam recommendations."
It's November here in Beaufort, SC. We fall on the edge of zones 9 and 8 (So let's go with zone 8.5). We generally do not get any freeing temps until February and March. Would it be a mistake to buy and plant Cassava now?
You Rock
@@user-px4iu1gx8c SPAM
Have you ever watched the UA-cam channel of a woman named Dianxi? (I can't spell her surname, sorry) Look up her channel by her 1st name. Right now she has a video about cassava. The roots she harvested are HUGE. (Probably wild plants) The same video shows recipes too.
QUESTION for DAVID the good. Do you plant cover crop in fall/winter? Do you have a video on cover cropping?
Yes, I have a few. We're planting turnips, oats, rye and clover.
David, you are looking down and to the left. Are you reading your talk off camera?
It looks like he is talking to people in front of him.
I am talking to the cat.
@@davidthegood
@@davidthegood That makes sense!
@@davidthegood It never hurts to have another set of hand, er I mean paws in the garden 🤣. Thank you for the informative video! We are going to give that a try next year!
Make a video about all different yams in one video and cold hardy tubers in another
That would be a heckuva video.
Got to try this here south of Houston. Cyanide? Awesome. Maybe I won't have to buying apricot seeds to get my b17.
I don't think it's the same formulation.
So, are the yucca roots edible?
Great video, thank you!
Thank you.
Find out way making alcohols from them for aged group!!
Here 🇧🇷 very cassava!!!
Hi question I just wanted to know I planted this in zone 8 SC how you store the cut for next season
David I'm in D'Iberville Mississippi about the same zone your in just doing the backyard garden. Which cassava will work best for me?
Most of the varieties are unnamed. I bought a few different ones from Etsy and elsewhere and planted them, then saved cuttings from the best.
How many days to you ferment the casava before your boil it and then how long do you boil it before you eat it or dry it?
Asian, Koreans enjoy sticky chewy stuffed carbs powdered grain foods as steam stuffed buns, steamed with toppings or aged alcoholic sour sponge steamed cakes.
I expect Colorado to have a hot summer. Could I have a chance of growing some small ones?
I doubt it's a long enough season.
I'd like to know more about the difference in yucca and yuca as well as it's uses and growing methods I have an interest in it's edible side as well as for fibers I like weaveing and spinning fibers making cordiage that sort of thing
That would be yucca.
@@lynnjasmine3216 yes but he said there are two separate plants ones name having one c in the name the other having two so what's the difference? Do you happen to know? Curiously curious my garden friend
@@lunastar832 Yucca has sharp edges on it spear shaped leaves. Grows a good bit around here. Also grows tall spike with whitish flowers. Perennial. The yuca, I have only seen on here but would like to try.
There is absolutely no relation between the two plants. It would be like comparing chestnuts to nettles.