Blueberries and Yacon

It was a busy beautiful day at the VegHeadz garden today with the main event being Jeannie and Linda planting eight blueberry bushes to create a small blueberry orchard.  We chose to plant Rabbiteye blueberries because of their adaptation to our area, and because they bloom later, helping protect them from damage to early blooms by a late frost.

Blueberries:  Two different varieties of the same type (Rabbit Eye or Southern Highbush) are needed for pollination.  The same type is necessary because the two types bloom at different times, with Highbush about a month earlier than the Rabbiteyes, making cross pollination unlikely between the two types.  More bushes make it more likely for good pollination to take place.     

We planted four tried and true varieties of Rabbiteye—Powderblue, Ochlockonee, Brightwell and Tift.  They were planted about five feet apart in two rows on either side of the newly refreshed swale above the forest garden.  Fine pine bark chips were used as the planting medium after the holes were dug to provide good drainage and to help provide the acidic pH blueberries prefer.   It’ll be fun to watch them grow and to learn how to take care of them—and of course to sample the berries.  

For all you need to know about growing blueberries in your yard, see the Blueberry Gardener’s Guide:  https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/MG359.  By the way, it’s time to fertilize your fruit trees.  Fertilizing in February, April, and July is recommended for most dooryard fruits.  Organic fertilizers, such as Citrus Tone, and Holly Tone are suitable for most varieties.  Holly Tone is used for grafted citrus and blueberries or any other fruit that prefers a more acidic environment, while Citrus Tone can be used for most other fruit trees

Yacon, peeled on left, corms on 
right with a yacon “potato”
at the bottom

Yacon:  Peggy and Terry dug a bunch of yacon tubers and rhizomes.  Yacon has two underground growths—the brown skinned edible tubers, which look like small sweet potatoes, and the red corms or rhizomes, which are knobby growths just below the soil surface under the plant, and are the part used to propagate new plants. 

To propagate yacon, the corms should be cleaned and dried and allowed to sprout.  Peggy advises that in our temperate climate the dry red tubers are planted in the spring. She just skipped that part and left them in the ground, and now the corms are sprouting and ready to plant.  Every eye in the corm has the potential to make a stalk.

The plant grows into a small 3’-4’ clump with slightly fuzzy light green leaves.  The edible tuber —Apple of the Andes—grows all year underground.  Harvesting in fall includes digging the whole plant to get the 4”-6” brown tubers the size of a good baked potato.

Bugs and rot may decrease the potato tuber yield, but the red corms are prolific and spread moderately. Peggy will be potting up a couple dozen of these for the May plant sale and there’ll be some available in the garden for those who wish to plant them at home.  Choose any sunny spot with nutrient-rich soil that is well drained. As a general rule, if the location is good for tomatoes, it's good for yacon. Plant the sprouted rhizomes in a hole about 2 to 3 inches deep with the sprouts pointing upward.   We got our original yacon start from Regine Maligne-Lynch, local perennial gardener.   It’s time to pass it on.

Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) is a perennial daisy from the Andes.  It is rich in vitamins and trace minerals and is said to have many health benefits due to the inulin it contains, providing low glycemic sweetness and supporting digestive microbes.  The tubers can be eaten raw or cooked in most recipes for potatoes. They can be peeled and eaten fresh, sautéed or boiled, just to name a few.  They are crunchy and sweet—sweet enough that they can be used to make syrup and jelly or powdered and added to baked goods.  Their crunchy sweetness has been compared to apples.  

We had a visit from Extension Agent Trevor Hylton and advice on a variety of subjects including pruning fruit trees and fertilizing tea camellias.   

Mike is working on replacing deteriorating wood on our pergola/arbor and Peter and Glenn added Peter’s spiffy angle brackets to the grape arbor to provide decorative interest and support for the structure of the arbor.  

Pruning and weeding continue and plenty of planning for soon to be planted spring crops.  Peggy rotated the pruned Roselle bushes to a different spot, Linda and Laurie worked on the pollinator beds, BJ pruned the blackberries, Nancy and Camille began freshening up the patio garden with new pots and new plants, and Janis pruned dead material from tender perennials in the forest garden.   

So much going on, so many pleasant talks and interesting information and satisfying laughs.   It was a good day.   

Camille and Nancy have been
moving pots, dumping old soil which
had become infested with ants,
and cleaning and preparing pots with
fresh soil.  The patio garden will 
be refreshed and interesting this
spring.  

Terry and Jeannie with a 
wagon full of blueberry plants 
and soil amendments.  Let the
planting begin! 

Linda is getting a large container 
garden ready for new plants

Janis is cutting back the dead pigeon 
Peas.  We hope they’ll come back,
 but the freeze this winter might
have done them in.  

It’s so much fun spending time in the garden with
VegHead friends.  

The blueberry patch.  Next will be
cardboard and wood chip mulch
throughout the blueberry area to
keep down weeds, prevent
erosion and retain moisture.  

Peggy is digging up Roselle to 
rotate it to a different spot.  We’re hoping
it will sprout from the roots.  So far 
we’ve had to plant it from new
seedlings each year.  

Attractive angle brackets give support 
and add interest to the new 
grape arbor.