Post by atash on Aug 15, 2011 14:59:44 GMT -5
If Cinnamon Yam is the same thing as "Mountain Yam" (translation of its Chinese name), Dioscorea batatas, it is VERY coldhardy, which is unusual for its overwhelmingly tropical family. Just how cold is your climate?!
It does have many less-hardy relations with similar names, so beware. Doesn't help that they all look superficially somewhat alike, aside from scale and a few variations on leaf shape (some are more lobed than others).
Yes, the tubers can hit 3 feet, in fact, that is part of it's undoing: it is a lot of work to dig the tubers. Significantly more work than potatoes. Ah, but it is highly resistant to the diseases of potatoes! Was tried briefly in Europe after one of the big potato blights, but given up on.
In Japan it is rare anymore to let them grow for more than a year, but it is unusual among root crops in that the tubers remain quite edible, and keep growing, for more than one year. That's how you get the really big ones.
I have one that needs to be propagated to a different location.
The ne plus ultra of the family is the domesticated version of Dioscorea bulbifera from India. These are what were called "Aloo" before the Portuguese brought potatoes from the New World, and they're still grown by Jains, because the aerial tubers are what is harvested, so that the farmers don't end up killing soil-dwelling fauna (taboo in the Jain religion) harvesting them.
The aerial tubers are roughly the size of a small-medium potato. Because Indians still use the same word (aloo) for both crops, this causes some confusion and there was a discussion about a press release involving an impossible crop/claim that got posted on the Seedsavers forum some years ago. I'm pretty sure the farmer was growing "air potatoes" (D. bulbifera) and calling them "potatoes".
Looks like the "Mountain Potato" but a more robust plant in all aspects, especially the tuberils. Not as coldhardy; some say root hardy to USDA z8 but it probably better be a warm 8.
Its wild cousin has gone feral in Florida (and Hawaii), making it practically impossible to import the domesticated one now, despite the fact that it is impossible for the domesticated plant to go feral, as stray tubers get eaten by critters too fast, lacking the toxin of the wild species.
A friend of mine claims the wild ones could be eaten after cooking. Not knowing the chemistry involved, I'll pass for now.
It does have many less-hardy relations with similar names, so beware. Doesn't help that they all look superficially somewhat alike, aside from scale and a few variations on leaf shape (some are more lobed than others).
Yes, the tubers can hit 3 feet, in fact, that is part of it's undoing: it is a lot of work to dig the tubers. Significantly more work than potatoes. Ah, but it is highly resistant to the diseases of potatoes! Was tried briefly in Europe after one of the big potato blights, but given up on.
In Japan it is rare anymore to let them grow for more than a year, but it is unusual among root crops in that the tubers remain quite edible, and keep growing, for more than one year. That's how you get the really big ones.
I have one that needs to be propagated to a different location.
The ne plus ultra of the family is the domesticated version of Dioscorea bulbifera from India. These are what were called "Aloo" before the Portuguese brought potatoes from the New World, and they're still grown by Jains, because the aerial tubers are what is harvested, so that the farmers don't end up killing soil-dwelling fauna (taboo in the Jain religion) harvesting them.
The aerial tubers are roughly the size of a small-medium potato. Because Indians still use the same word (aloo) for both crops, this causes some confusion and there was a discussion about a press release involving an impossible crop/claim that got posted on the Seedsavers forum some years ago. I'm pretty sure the farmer was growing "air potatoes" (D. bulbifera) and calling them "potatoes".
Looks like the "Mountain Potato" but a more robust plant in all aspects, especially the tuberils. Not as coldhardy; some say root hardy to USDA z8 but it probably better be a warm 8.
Its wild cousin has gone feral in Florida (and Hawaii), making it practically impossible to import the domesticated one now, despite the fact that it is impossible for the domesticated plant to go feral, as stray tubers get eaten by critters too fast, lacking the toxin of the wild species.
A friend of mine claims the wild ones could be eaten after cooking. Not knowing the chemistry involved, I'll pass for now.