Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
How to Harvest
The foliage will die down in the fall. Harvest the roots then; they're as mature as they'll
get that season. If you intend to eat most of the roots, save the small offsets for next
spring's plants.
Winter Storage
Taro tubers are hardy to about 32°F. Unless your winters stay above freezing, the tubers
need to be lifted and stored for winter. To store in cold climates, remove the pots (with
the offsets in them) from the container and turn them on their sides in a cool, moist,
shady place — an unheated cellar is fine. It's important not to let the roots dry out, so
check every so often to be sure the soil is moist.
In the spring, when the weather and water warms up, put the pots back in the water
container and you're all set for another season. If you haven't eaten all the roots, they
may have become too big for their original pots. In that case they should be repotted.
DID YOU KNOW?
Raw taro (
Colocasia esculenta
and its cultivars) is toxic because it contains calcium oxalate crystals.
These are destroyed by cooking. Taro can also be made edible by soaking rhizomes in water overnight.
Avoid tasting raw taro as you're preparing it because it will burn your tongue. Some people are even sens-
itive to handling raw taro. If you discover your skin is sensitive to it, wear rubber gloves when preparing
it.
Varieties
Green taro (
Colocasia esculenta),
also simply called taro or dasheen, is similar but lacks
the dramatic dark stems. The cultivar 'Illustris' is known as imperial taro; it has lighter
green leaves with dark purple markings between veins.
Several other cultivars of this species are also available.
The Chinese name
woo chai
is also used for a related plant, blue taro (
Xanthosoma
violacea
). It, too, has an edible tuber but doesn't grow in water. Like the
Colocasia
tar-
os, it's grown as an ornamental. In the Caribbean, blue taro is also known as
malanga
and
yautia
. These names are used in some Chinese cookbooks prepared for Americans.
If you grow your own taro, you'll know which one you are eating.
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