How to Plant Cassava \ Yuca \ Tapioca

Cassava will grow in any warm climate, including indoors as a potted plant. Planting is fairly simple. Start with cuttings that are bigger than 1 cm thick and woody colored(no green). Around 1 foot long is a good length. They don’t need to have sprouts coming out, but they do need to have the nodules/nubs on them.

Some Ticos up in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, swear by burying two cuttings a few inches deep in a crisscross style with the ends poking out of the soil. We lay ours down horizontally in loose soil and cover them with 3-4 inches of soil (as seen in the video). All methods seem to work and depending on rainfall, breeds, and other climate factors, some may work better than others.

Check out the video to see how to plant cassava.

Dig up the roots about 1 year after planting and enjoy!

One of the coolest things about this food crop is that it has a very flexible harvest time. If you need to wait a couple of months to finish eating your last cassava harvest, you can wait. Cassava plants are like nature’s food storage pantry. No canning required. Cassava root also has more than double the carbohydrates per gram compared to potatoes. For these reason, cassava is one of our favorite survival garden plants.

After harvest, be sure and cut up some of the stalks for replanting.

Keep in mind that 2 years after planting, cassava can become woody and difficult to eat. It good to get out of the ground around 1 year, give or take few months.