Cassava

Cassava is propagated from short stem cuttings rather than seed, planted just a few inches deep and spaced roughly four feet apart in rows set four feet apart.

The crop needs full sun and at least eight frost-free months to form harvestable roots, growing best in moist, fertile, well-drained soil while tolerating poor soils and drought, though it will not tolerate waterlogged ground; fertilizer practice follows that used for sweet potatoes.

Cassava has few serious diseases or insect pests, though red spider mites should be watched for. Anthracnose, a fungal disease caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, is also recorded on cassava stems.

Roots are dug or pulled from the ground about nine to twelve months after planting. Because the roots deteriorate rapidly once lifted, they should be used soon after harvesting.

Culinary: Raw cassava roots and leaves are toxic and must be cooked before eating; the roots are boiled as a vegetable or processed into flour, starch, tapioca, bread, and beer, while the leaves are boiled and eaten as a source of vitamins and protein.

Fodder: Cassava hay is used as animal feed.

Industrial: Root starch is also processed into glue, laundry starch, adhesives, textiles, cosmetics, and ethanol.

Ornamental: Variegated-leaved plants are grown as landscape ornamentals for their showy, hand-shaped foliage.

Medicinal: A systematic review describes cassava as both a dietary staple and a traditional medicine in various cultures, though it notes that further research is needed to validate these traditional uses.

Cassava is believed to have originated in Latin America, particularly Brazil and western South America, where native peoples are thought to have first cultivated it more than 4,000 years ago; the plant is not known to occur in the wild. From this center it spread widely: Portuguese traders introduced cassava to Africa in 1558, and Europeans later carried it from South America to Asia between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.