African Potato Mint

African Potato Mint
Plectranthus Esculentus

days to maturity: 120-200 days 
plant spacing: 2 plants per square foot
sunlight requirements: 6-14 hours
look out for: spreads like a mint
harvest notes: harvest tubers 120-200 days after planting
perennial

African Potato Mint is one of our rarest plants and for that reason its pretty unpopular, but try it once and you’ll be hooked. It is called “potato mint” because it is in the mint family, not because it has anything to do with the culinary uses of mint. Instead of using the leaves it’s grown for its sweet and nutritious tubers. 

Indigenous to Southern Tropical Africa this plant is a staple root crop there, and has been brought to South Florida because our climate is so similar. The tubers are high in protein, carbohydrates, iron, calcium, and vitamin A and low in sugar, making them a great substitute for white potatoes when cooked. Their delicious roasted or boiled and most of the customers who come back for this plant again and again are keto or paleo and eating this tuber because its so low in sugars. 

This perennial plant is usually grown as an annual, so the tubers can be harvested young, however it propagates super easy from cuttings or you can replant the tubers you don’t want to eat. 

Plant in full or partial sun somewhere where the plant can spread a bit. While this plant stays low and spreads we don’t really consider it a ground cover because you cant walk on it without damaging it. Once mature it’ll produce beautiful blue flowers and in the dry winters it will die back a bit so that it can focus its energies on making tubers instead of leaves.