Growing Yacon: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026
Yacon is a tall Andean sunflower relative grown for its large, crisp, mildly sweet storage roots, usually sliced and eaten raw like fruit rather than cooked.
The most forgiving Andean tuber
Unlike oca, yacon isn’t photoperiod-dependent, and it tolerates real heat, up to 104°F given enough water. That makes it noticeably more forgiving than the other Andean root crops here for most of the US. The tradeoff is season length: it needs a frost-free stretch of at least 7 months to size up properly, so nearly everywhere benefits from starting plants indoors well ahead of the last frost rather than direct planting.
Start early, plant deep
Start rhizome divisions in pots about 8 weeks before the last frost; yacon grows slowly in cool soil, so a head start matters even in warm climates. Transplant out once frost risk has passed, setting the crown about 4 inches deep and spacing plants roughly 30 inches apart. Wider spacing tends to produce bigger plants and roots, so don’t crowd it the way you might a compact root crop.
Protect it from wind
Yacon’s large leaves shred badly in strong wind, so give it a sheltered spot or plant it in a block where the outer plants take the brunt of it for the ones inside.
Yacon has no well-established companion pairings, and nothing it needs to be kept away from. In the Garden Designer, give it a tall footprint and dig-and-replant it annually like a dahlia or canna rather than expecting it to overwinter outside the mildest zones.
Source: Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius), Cultivariable.
Companion planting guide for Yacon · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 6-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 4-6 ft
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. It needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
When to plant yacon, by zone
Every zone yacon grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6a & 6b | Feb 28–Mar 7 | May 16–May 23 | Dec 12–Dec 19 |
| 7a & 7b | Feb 13–Feb 20 | May 1–May 8 | Nov 27–Dec 4 |
| 8a & 8b | Jan 28–Feb 4 | Apr 15–Apr 22 | Nov 11–Nov 18 |
| 9a & 9b | Dec 21–Dec 28 | Mar 8–Mar 15 | Oct 4–Oct 11 |
| 10a & 10b | Dec 5–Dec 12 | Feb 20–Feb 27 | Sep 18–Sep 25 |
| 11a & 11b | Nov 6–Nov 13 | Jan 22–Jan 29 | Aug 20–Aug 27 |
Harvest dates are about 210 days after the sow or plant-out date, not after starting seeds indoors.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Yacon plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: about 4 square feet per plant (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 4-6 ft.
Varieties worth considering
- Yacon: Cultivariable sells yacon rhizomes and seeds of the straight species, propagated by crown division since yacon varieties are clones rather than seed-true cultivars. (source)
Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.
Where to buy yacon seeds
None of the seed suppliers we list carries yacon seeds right now. A local garden center or a specialty seed house is the place to look.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links on this page also go to other retailers we may earn a commission from as an affiliate, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products with a clear consensus of positive, independent reviews, or ones we bought and use ourselves. Each item on our gear page says which.
See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing yacon" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
Pin this for later
Growing Yacon: A tall Andean sunflower relative grown for large, crisp, mildly sweet storage roots usually eaten raw like fruit, more heat-tolerant than most Andean tubers.
Save to Pinterest