How I grew Ube in my backyard in the East Bay of San Francisco. I tell you where I bought my Ube starter tuber and the process of how I planted it, grew it and harvested it. It truly was a labour of love.
Why I grew my own real Ube
One of my goals the past few years was to see if I could grow Ube in California. Did you know that even though you see Ube desserts all over, that Ube planting and harvesting in the Philippines is the lowest it has ever been. This is because of climate change and many people outside of the Philippines relying on fake Ube flavoring or using purple potatoes to pass it off as the real thing.
This does a disservice to the farmers trying to get support from the government to provide growing assistance. The yam and its different varieties are actually dying. To help save it, we can try to grow our own crops here in the US or really keep asking them to export real Ube for us to use. That is why it is so important to use and talk about real Ube. It helps keep it alive. Don't rely on the bottle of flavoring. If you are a business, a blogger or recipe developer always seek to us the real thing in your recipes if possible.
A good reference to watch is this video from Featr aptly named Is Ube being stolen from the Philippines. It gives perspective.
Weather and climate is very important
I live in the East Bay of San Francisco, which has a very different climate than San Francisco proper. During the spring and summer it is much hotter, with the weather almost similar to Southern California. In the winters, especially lately we have had some rain.
Because of this type of weather, I thought I would try growing real Ube in my backyard. My first try was a bust. I used a sprout I obtained from Etsy and planted it. It didn't grow much as we had a super hot summer and then a super wet winter.
The second time I decided to use a real tuber and boy did it work. I will take you through how I grew real Ube in my backyard in San Francisco.
How to prepare Ube for planting
First I ordered a tuber from Gesedas Garden on Etsy in April as around that time it starts to get warmer where I am.
Once you get the tuber you are supposed to cut it into 3 equal parts and then dry them in the sun for a few days. This is to prevent them from rotting in the ground. If you are a real deal gardener you can also rub the exposed cut parts with ash to help keep them healthy during the sprouting process. Gosh see how vibrant the color is with some streaks of white.
How to plant it
I planted the ube in a planter box. After my first real harvest, my advice is to not do that. They are very hard to dig up because they truly root into the ground. Also the skin is very thin and they are prone to getting scratched while you are carefully digging them out.
It's better to plant them in a big planter grow bag, but don't burry them in the ground. Keep them above ground. You can just rip them apart when it is time to harvest and release the soil around them. It makes the process so much easier.
What type of soil do you need to plant real ube?
Ube needs deep loose soil mixed with compost to grow. The pot that you use also needs to have really good drainage. Before planting line the bottom of your grow bag with stones this will help drain the water out. Then top with a layer of loose soil and plant the tuber in. Top the rest the of the pot with more soil.
How often should you water the planting?
Water it lightly everyday and keep out in the sun. While the vines are growing, hard harsh direct sun light can burn the leaves. You can shade them in the beginning with an umbrella and once they have matured over a couple of weeks they will thrive in the sun.
How long do they take to sprout?
I planted my Ube pieces in April and I saw sprouts come out of the ground in June, so about 2 months.
Ube Vines
Within a month they transformed from sprouts to official vines. From the time you see the first sprouts all you need to do is make sure the vines have room to grow. Many plant the tubers next to a trellis so that the fines can grow and grow. I didn't have that luxury so I just looped the vines within each other.
How much do Ube vines grow?
Typically ube vines indicate how well the ube is growing underground. The more the vibrant and lush the vines the bigger your crop is down below. They can get up to 10 to 20 feet tall.
Can you eat Ube vines?
No you cannot unfortunately. They are considered toxic to be eaten both raw and cooked. They are purely ornamental and used to gauge the growth of ube in the ground. Do not eat them.
How long is the growing season?
Typically it takes about 9 to 18 months to grow ube. It all depends on the weather that you have. If the vines are still green and growing, it is advisable to not harvest them yet. Both the vines and the ube can grow indefinitely if you let it.
Because I live in San Francisco East Bay Area, I do have to be mindful of the weather patterns. I planted in April and the vines were really doing really well during the summer when it was quite dry.
That is until it started raining constantly. Around December we started to experience many rainy days in a row and the leaves started to get brown spots and eventually by January all the vines died down. This means it is time to dig the real ube up!
Digging Them Up
The hardest thing about growing Ube was actually digging them up without damaging the skin or breaking them. Again, it was because of where I planted them. As I mentioned earlier planting them in their own grow bag will make harvesting easier.
We treated it like we were digging up dinosaur bones acting like anthropologists. We were digging around the tubers very carefully and using our fingers to find out which way they grew and how wide. It took us 1 hour to dig out the first one! You can see how much roots they grow. Which makes it even harder to get them out of the ground.
Real Ube Harvest
Most of our harvest was super thin and probably needed a few more months of growth. Because of the constant rain, they were basically sitting in mud and they did not like that. As you can see most of the harvested ube was broken because it is actually very delicate. They easily break. Sadly I had to throw away almost half of the harvest as they were rotten from the wet soil.
From just the 3 pieces of cut up ube I managed to grow about 12 full tubers. Not bad! You can see the skin is quite smooth when they are just dug up from the ground and washed. Over time the skin starts to wrinkle and get the bark like texture.
What real Ube looks like
You can see the skin get dryer and tighter and all the roots protruding out of the tuber. After a few hours they start getting their distinct bark like skin.
Here is a cross section of a fresh ube cut in half. The color vibrancy is unreal.
Here is what real ube looks like when it has been peeled.
I cannot wait to cook with my real deal ube that I grew in my backyard. If you want to try it let me know and we can be Ube growing buddies. It's best to plant them in the beginning of spring to give them time to grow.
If you have other questions I didn't answer here email me at hi@rezelkealoha.com. I will add it in here.
Recipes to make with real ube
Ube Halaya Recipe With No Food Coloring
Super Easy 3 Ingredient Ube Tortillas
Savory Ube Focaccia Recipe and It's No-Knead!
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john de la cruz says
ube used to be sold in the heart of the city farmers market in san francisco by a fresno hmong farmer but the seller did not continue during the pandemic. The seller was calling it mountain yam or something like that. Aside from frozen and dried powder imports from the philippines found in asia grocery, ube is also sold in india grocery as ratalu usually as frozen ratalu pieces from india. white dioscorea alata diamante from colombia is sold in hispanic grocery and asian grocery. I learned how to slice it with knife, boil the large pieces and eat it and I also drink all of the water used for boiling. I used to boil first and peel later, throw away the water used for boiling.
Rezel Kealoha says
Hi John! Thank you for this additional information. It's so rare to see fresh ube locally in San Francisco. I hope they come back. Also I will now need to visit Hispanic grocery stores to find the white versions. So helpful!
Net says
This is amazing! I'm currently in SF proper so growing myself isn't likely, but it's great to hear that I can try when I move out to the East Bay next year.
Rezel Kealoha says
Yes! I actually just planted this year's crop today. It's taking a while to get warmer here in the East Bay. It can take over the garden so plant it in an open space. This time I am using grow bags with handles so that it's easier to move around when there is heavy rain so it can grow more. Anyway. I hope you try!!
Ellen says
I would love to hear updates on this. I just got my hands on tuber and live in Sacramento. I'm hoping i can get it going and get more ube for the future.
Rezel Kealoha says
I just planted my tuber tops from that last crop. I will update the post when it has vines! Thank you for reading. This time I planted them in planter bags. It will be so much easier to dig out.
Stella says
Hi. Last year, we moved to Georgia from Sacramento. I wanted to make my usual Ube Cake and found out it’s so hard to find real frozen Ube. Some Asian stores (Chinese) here have frozen ones from Vietnam but I feel like they are actually taro with food coloring. When I thawed it, the flesh turned white and the water was very purple.
When I started my intense Google search for the real Ube, I also stumbled upon FEATR’s Ube documentary (as well as the Calamansi). I also found out there are some Ube growers in Florida. I stumbled upon your blog because I have 1 piece of real Ube tuber that I intend on planting. Except for the winter temp, Georgia’s humidity is so much like Mindanao. So I will try my luck growing it spring to fall. Wish me luck!
Rezel Kealoha says
Ah! Good luck on planting your ube Stella! I have to say it is very satisfying to grow your own Ube. Plant it in a grow bag or pot so you can move it somewhere warm when it starts getting cold and/or rainy. I found that my ube needed more time in the ground as they did not get fat enough.
Alex says
Hello Stella,
I'm also an ube enthusiast. The best frozen ube is in Island Pacific supermarket. They sell Barrio Fiesta frozen ube and I can tell you for sure that it's real frozen grated ube.
I bought an ube plant from Florida before and I harvested the roots/tubers after 6 months. It still didn't taste as good as our ube from the Philippines.
Regarding ube flavoring, the best one is McCormick's ube flavoring which I use for baking.
Best, Alex
victor feria says
Hi. I envy you because you can grow ube all year round. I live in Chicago and the only way I can grow ube is by using 5-gallon bucket. I started last May and plan to bring them indoors during winter.
On another note: According to some ube enthusiasts ube can hibernate during winter so long that it does not get frozen. So I started an experimental plot outdoors with all the controls to prevent the soil temperature from going down below 50degF. I have electronic monitoring system to monitor soil temperature and humidity. I will document details via youtube. Stay tuned!
Rezel Kealoha says
Oh interesting! I think that is possible just as long as the ground or soil around it does not get too wet as well. I can't wait to see how your experiment turns out!
Angela says
I am so thankful to have found your wonderful post with amazing pictures! I visited Kauai in May and when I returned home to the Mojave Desert in Phelan California, I ordered Ube slips from Etsy. I am growing my own Ube in a large grow bag in my greenhouse where the beautiful vines get lots of water and plenty of sunshine. I cannot wait for my first harvest.
Rezel Kealoha says
Oh you are so welcome Angela! And also the very first harvest is very exciting. It's amazing how many ube will grow from one piece!
Christyn Treuhaft says
Where can I order ube seeds or tubers to plant? Your article and all the comments enticed me to try growing it here in SoCal. It would be so fun to brag about it if I succesfully grow, harvest and make halayang ube next year’s Thanksgiving!!
Rezel Kealoha says
Hi Christyn,
That would be the ultimate flex!!! Okay, the best place I have found Ube Tubers was on Etsy. However I just checked and it's now flooded with fake Ube. They all look like sweet potato. I prefer buying the whole tuber instead of a starter plant as you will know 100% you are planting real Ube. I asked the seller (GesedasGarden) when they are going to be selling Ube again and I will let you know. So far they haven't sold any at all this year. Anyway I will keep you posted and see if I can find some real ones. Thanks for reading! Rezel
Okay! I got an update from my source GesedasGarden. They are harvesting Ube in November and he said that they will need 2-3 months to rest before planting so he will post them for sale around Feb next year.
Troy says
Any tubers available or did I miss?
Crystal says
So I live down by San Mateo and just ordered this https://www.etsy.com/listing/1769412978/aerial-ube-tubers-dioscorea-alata
Do you think this is right? If not I'm going to be looking also. I've been hunting around here and even ranch only has purple yam that is actually sweet potatoes which is really frustrating.
Totally almost emailed you to see if you were willing to part with a portion of a tuber but then I saw your note about the person opening their store back up in February so I'll probably order from them as soon as they do
Rezel Kealoha says
Hi Crystal! These aerial tubers are from mature vines. They look like they have roots so when you get them you can plant them already. They are like above ground ube babies. I haven't tried them myself, but it's worth a try!!!! Good luck!
Troy says
Hey sista, where can I find da tubers
Rezel Kealoha says
Hi Hi! You can get them from Gesedas Garden on Etsy.