Yacon · Formosa, Formosa, Argentina
When to plant yacon in Formosa
Main outdoor window
1-29 Aug
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
25 July
In Formosa, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
31 Mar - 30 May
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Formosa
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Plant rhizomes
1-29 Aug
One week after your last frost.
Harvest
31 Mar - 30 May
Yacon through the year
Against the frost risk in Formosa
Why these dates
Plant rhizomes after the last frost. Lift when the first frost blackens the tops, and store the crowns frost-free for replanting.
Top growth is killed at 0C. The tubers survive a light frost in the ground but not a freeze, so they are lifted promptly.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Yacon are timed with planting out 1 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Formosa.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Formosa is zone 10a, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
The median frost-free season here is 338 days, against 150 to 210 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Formosa
Other vegetables to time
Growing yacon in Formosa
When should I plant yacon in Formosa?
Aim for 1-29 Aug in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 27 Aug - 24 Sep - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will yacon be ready to harvest in Formosa?
Expect to start picking around 31 Mar - 30 May, based on 150 to 210 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will yacon tolerate?
Top growth is killed at 0C. The tubers survive a light frost in the ground but not a freeze, so they are lifted promptly.