My wife likes to watch videos of unusual cuisine and asked of I had heard of Konjac. I have seen it in rare plant catalogs, but never knew it was edible. It’s a relative of the corpse flower! The corm can be used to used to make flour, gelatin, or jelly. I may have to get one to try out, apparently hardy thru zone 6.
I probably still have corm that has not be planted yet. PM me if you want some.
Here is the one I have which is still blooming
I saw @zendog posted his in ground plants couple days ago.
It is a unusual plant to grow and it is very easy to grow too. It likes filtered sunny
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wait, this actually survives zone 6?
I just figured it was catalog hype…
how long does it take to flower?
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I’ve seen them in Mennonite yards in Lancaster. Not sure I ever saw them flower.
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How long to flowering depends on what size corm you start with. Konjac corms need to be about a pound before they’ll consider flowering and sometimes they’ll divide by creating offsets which slows down how quickly the corm gets big enough to flower. That said, if you start with a 2" size corm you may get a flower by the third year with good soil fertility, etc. Here is one I have to plant out that is close to a pound and had 5 offsets last year (3 broke off, 2 of which are in the photo). If I take off the offsets and plant it it would probably be flowering size next year. If you leave the offsets on, it will sometimes put more energy into those and you wind up with lots of medium sized corms instead of the main corm getting bigger.
I also grow A. Bulbifer which has similar hardiness, although it may be a little less hardy than Konjac. I also have a more tropical one called A. Maxwellii which has a really attractive stem (petiole), but that needs to be dug up every year.
In terms of being an edible, I believe Konjac also has some appetite impression properties because of its high fiber content or something so it has some popularity as a diet supplement. Another Amorphophallus that is edible is A. paeoniifolius, which isn’t as hardy but could be grown and dug each year like giant gladiolus bulbs. A big A. Konjac corm is 10lbs, but they can get over 20 lbs. A. paeoniifolius can get up to 50 lbs. Since they can just be put on a shelf for months on end while dormant they are a very good storage food. But just to be clear, I’ve never eaten any of mine, so no idea of the taste or any diet benefits.
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Commonly grown and eaten in India. Delicious!
They do get gigantic. Usually you buy a kilo or less. Each corm can weigh multiples of that.
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I was inerested in growing A. konjac which is supposedly cold hardy in my climate (lower end of 8a). However, I acquired three different cultivars of it and none of them survived. I protected them their first winter in my greenhouse and the second winter I left them outside in pots on the ground. I might try again if anyone local claims to have success with them. I’m sure they’d have a better chance in ground than in pots…
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I expect they would have been fine if in the ground instead of in pots. I’ve heard of people growing them in Michigan. Like any root/bulb/corm it is important they have good drainage so they aren’t sitting in super wet soil while dormant or they may rot.
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I was searching the thread for konjac and this is the first thing that came up!
I think I am pretty close to you, @JohannsGarden .
Been wanting to try growing konjac for a while but does anyone know a reputable source?
I had gotten three konjac cultivars from Plant Delights Nursery. They were in good shape and appeared true to type when grown out. I just wish they had more affordable shipping prices given the small size they ship their plants…
I might have to try again sometime. They didn’t overwinter in pots, but I hadn’t tried overwintering them in ground. If it’s anything like myoga ginger then that could make a big difference (I generally have extremely high mortality of myoga in pots over winter, but zero mortality of myoga in ground over winter).
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I’m close to the sound so maybe it would work for me? I’ve been able to keep my myoga in pots and it comes back. (I pack on the straw or whatever I’ve got though. And didn’t think about it until now but the pots historically have been along a south facing wood fence.)
You’re definitely in a warmer spot that me, and you’re probably overwintering it in larger pots than me. I’ve tried in 4" pots and 1gal pots. Both sizes freeze/thaw too many times and turn the rhizomes to slimy mush.
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Oh nooooo, oh, most definitely biggger pots!
Wow. I just looked at the Plant Delights’ offering of konjac and they have a lot!! A bit too steep of price for me at the moment though. Pretty cool varieties.
I just want to grow and eat it.
Secret Garden Growers has a generic konjac selection. They ship similar sized plants to Plant Delights, but charge more affordable prices (both for the plants and for the shipping). I’ve bought from them many times and always been happy.
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That is good news because, Secret Garden Growers, were the first ones I saw, actually! Thank you for vouching for these resources.
The tubers can get gigantic - 20 kg is not unheard of.
They are eaten in South India - very delicious!
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Don’t they just take the flavor of what they are cooked in?
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To some degree. And like most starchy roots.
But they are far more delicious than say potatoes which are more bland
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Plant Delights is a half zone colder than you, though with less consistently cold winders and less ground freezing. Still, I assume the pots are freezing out too hard and you’d be better off putting them in ground, maybe dumping a pile of mulch over them after first frost.