What it is
Jícama (Pachyrhizus erosus) is in the Fabaceae (Legume) family. A crisp, sweet, apple-like root you grow on a vine — a tropical legume that loves our long hot summers.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it moderate, and give it loose, deep, well-drained soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.0. Space plants about 12 in apart. Expect roughly 150–180 (long season). Warm-season annual.
How it's used
Jícama is used: root only.
🔎 How to identify it
- Bean-like trifoliate leaves
- Blue-violet pea flowers
- Large round tan tuber underground
Edibility
How to grow & propagate jícama
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate jícama
Legumes resent transplanting — that taproot wants to go straight down — so sow them right where they'll grow once the soil has warmed. Soak hard-coated seed overnight to speed germination. As a bonus, this whole family pulls nitrogen out of the air and banks it in the soil, so wherever you grow them you're feeding next season's crop.
Growing jícama in Texas
Give it full sun and loose, deep, well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
This one thrives in heat that flattens other plants, so it earns its space through a Texas summer. Get it established before the worst of July, keep water steady, and it'll produce when little else will.
Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 150–180 (long season) before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: the root (tuber).
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Keep this knowledge offline
A garden full of jícama is a real asset when times get hard — but the know-how to grow, store, and use it shouldn't live only on a website you can't reach. That's why I keep a copy of the references I rely on on a local server at home. Project NOMAD is a free, open-source way to run Wikipedia, survival and medical guides, maps, and even a private AI on your own hardware — knowledge that keeps working with no internet, no cloud, no signal.
See how I keep my library offline →Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.