age ago , I get word how to propagate multiple diversity of true yams ( Dioscorea spp . ) by dividing solution into pieces in wintertime or natural spring , dipping those piece in ash tree , then plant them to arise Modern , full roots by the close of the year .
We put all the pieces into a big pot of filth :
Then we covered them with more land and look . When they come alive up from dormancy , they ’d pop make shoot , like this :
One the vine started raise , we ’d transpose them into a seam to produce until harvest .
Yet another magic trick is to just skip off the “ headland ” of the yam plant , where last year ’s vines grew , and then replant it to make a novel yam plant by the end of the yr .
See the tops of these empurpled yams thata reader grew in Tennessee ?
You just trend off that head , with some physical body attach ( an inch or three ) , and then replant it .
This video from Lillian ’s Gardens read how she does it :
Though this technique does not multiply yams like cut them into minisetts does , it will allow you to regrow all the yam plant you resolve to reap for food for thought . For case , if you need to eat twelve yams , you may – and you get to make twelve Modern yams from the “ waste ” constituent you cut off when processing .
We learned this fast one in Grenada . There , Farmer and wild yam forager would often just cut off the top when they dug a yam plant and then put it back into the hole to grow a Modern yam the next yr .
Putting the yam head in pots through the wintertime make even more sense for those of us in colder climates , since you may keep the pots in a icing - free location until it ’s prison term to plant in spring .
It also make sensation if you do n’t have a yam bed ready to rank them in .
Yams are one of the best staple survival of the fittest crops you could develop in Florida and the Deep South . That ’s why they sport intemperately inFlorida Survival Gardening , Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening , and in the young , massively expanded and illustrated 2nd edition ofCreate your Own Florida Food Forest .
genuine yam are buckram , not cherubic , easily replace white-hot white potato in the diet while growing with less care and work .
