How to Harvest Yuca Plants

Yuca roots, or cassava, look like long, brown fingers.

Yuca -- also known as cassava -- is a shrubby plant that yields starchy crops. Aboveground, the plant looks similar to cannabis. Below the ground, the plant yields fingerlike roots that make everything from boiled yuca to tapioca flour. Harvesting the edible root is fairly straightforward, but you must time the harvest correctly, usually eight to 11 months after planting. Also, be sure you're harvesting the correct plant: Yuca is not the same as "yucca." While yuca is harvested just for its edible roots, yucca -- a succulent with long, sharp, pointed leave rosettes -- is mostly an ornamental that has some edible parts but is rarely harvested for consumption.

Things You'll Need

• Shears
• Hand trowel

Instructions

1. Trim back the leaves with gardening shears, preserving the stems in the plant's center. Remove the leaves two weeks ahead of harvesting to extend the yuca root's shelf life.

2. Use a hand trowel to very gently loosen the soil around the plant in a 2-foot radius. Avoid plunging the trowel into the ground, which can damage the yuca root and lead to it spoiling quickly. Your goal is to break up compacted soil, not to dig up the root.

3. Pull straight up on the center stem, rocking the stem gently back and forth to dislodge the yuca plant from the ground. Use your hand trowel or dig with your hands to free the root system.

4. Lay the pulled yuca plant down gently, taking care not to damage the edible roots, which look like long, thick brown fingers hanging from the stem cluster. Cut the yuca roots as possible to the base. Avoid twisting or pulling the roots.

Tips & Warnings

• Use or process the yuca root immediately. Unprocessed yuca root can spoil within days. Processing options include freezing the peeled root.

• Do not consume raw yuca. It contains possible toxic concentrations of cyanogenic glucosides, according to Stephen K. O'Hair of the Tropical Research and Education Center at the University of Florida.

• Strip the yuca root of its bark, as the bark may contain hydrocyanic acid, according to James M. Stephens of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida.

References

• Purdue University: Cassava
• University of Florida IFAS Extension: Cassava
• The Succulent Plant Page: Yuca and Yucca

Resources

• University of California, Berkeley: Yuca Root