Farms: Urban Farming in Florida: the true Yams
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Our culture and language has for decades confused Sweet Potatoes (Morning Glory Family 'Ipomaea') with the true Yams (Dioscorea Family). Now that it is getting hot in Tampa, underground tubers of my five different Yam cultivars are sending up their dramatic shoots like cobras rising from a basket! What's cool is that when I dig up a twenty pounder, I always miss a piece of tuber, which sprouts in summer and in two years creates ANOTHER twenty pounder undergeound! No wonder subtropical and tropical peoples have relied on them for centuries. Plus once dug up the monster tuber needs no refrigeration. Fried, boiled or baked, the true yams taste like an excellent potato but are much more nutritious. www.johnstarnesurbanfarm.blogspot.com
Comments
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Good video,I can also see you have cassava plants nice garden ,thank you .
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ube in Florida???? wow!!
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What we call "Air potatoe" is Dioscorea bulbifera and this specie is edible.
The only toxic tropical Yam is Dioscorea hispida but even this yam ca be eaten afer a special preparation. The non tropical Yam we know is Dioscorea batatas or opposita, formerly used to replace coffee. -
The scientific name of your Yam is probably: Dioscorea bulbifera. Please confirm.
François MAUGIS energie.environnement@wanadoo.fr -
Have a friend from the Philippines. who gave me a purple yam....the plant (leaves and vine start out purple then turn green when they grow larger)
...is this the same as your ubi????? does the ubi make air seed potatoes???? -
John is it ok to trim the vines at anytime? Great video
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I am interested in getting a few fresh ube that I could experiment growing in Chicago. I have planted tropical plants in large pots (10-gal) and have been successful with it. I keep the plant indoors during winter and take them out late spring through fall just before the winter frost danger. Can you spare some bulbs. I am willing to pay. thanks.
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If you still are looking, try any Asian food market, or any food market that has a clientele that includes Caribbean or Central American people. Save-alot in Pt Orange for instance, not particularly Latino, but I've gotten malanga, nyame, yuca. Three very different tropical roots...
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That chicken was so random. I'm currently growing dioscorea batatas, but the problem is that the vines aren't getting very thick however they produce clumps of vines. Anyways I will try harvesting some in a few weeks when they die back.
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Thanks John! I want the one that tastes like potatoes as I have tried growing potatoes with little success. I live up near Ocala and I just started my first yam this year will have to make a trellis like you have.
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Thank you...I can't imagine urban farmsteading and food self sufficiency in Florida without the yams. John
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Well done sir! Thanks for informing people about the true yam.