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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Aug 9, 2011 19:18:18 GMT -5
They are beautiful, but something about potatoes and anthrocyanins means the pigment is not heat-stable. As soon as I have enough I would like to experiment to see what is the best way to preserve the pigments, so that you get clearer colors when cooked. I've noticed that the anthocyan pigments in corn went away in extreme heat last year. Also the first year i planted indian corn, i had two rows of corn with some furrows in between so i could water them. That was the only year i got a fully purple corn plant with no trace of green at all. It was amazing to look at, but i suspect it's partly do to the fact that i watered 1 plant at the end more than the others every day early in the morning and late at night with very cold water from the garden hose. It would be interesting if there was a way to preserve the coloring when cooking, but there probably isn't. |
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Post by orflo on Aug 27, 2011 14:39:04 GMT -5
You do need specific circumstances for every one of these, as Atash already mentioned manihot needs tropical circumstances, the Andean tubers need a long frost-free spring and the Andean roots are more adaptable. Yacon grows in Australia and in the UK, it just grows bigger when they get plenty of rain, mine are just about 1,70 mtr right now and if frost is delayed they could end up well over 2 meters high, depending on the variety (I grow seven varieties). Mauka seems to be very adaptable as well, but some further try-outs have to be made to confirm this. Over here roots become quite big and the plants grow like wild, again depending on the variety.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2011 14:43:11 GMT -5
I just ordered newworldcrops.com's land race potato seeds and the Pohkepsie mix, last night. The landraces are said to contain every size shape and color.   Tom Wagner, of New World Crops, is receiving honorable mention on many websites. |
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Post by atash on Aug 27, 2011 22:31:13 GMT -5
Orflo, you do have any of the colored varieties of Yacon? Here in the States I've only ever seen white, and didn't realize other colors existed until recently.
Seems to be one of the easier Andean crops to grow.
Degzing, you might do well with those land-races over the winter; some of them MIGHT have day-length issues. We've grown some Peruvian potatoes without problems, sometimes at least in part because some of them have resistance to Phytophthora and some to frost, so that we can harvest pretty late in the year. We got a bumper crop last year of one that looks a lot like the one just to the left of the most bottom-right in the lower picture. We didn't get them all; we were racing the annual flooding of our field.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2011 22:44:08 GMT -5
A green house is being fixed, so that I can get the seeds started.
We've also been using black plastic sheeting, with drip irrigation, on raised mounds. I believe this alone may counteract the effects of our milder freezes.
These were just some pics I found in an images.google for landrace(s) potato(es) etc.
Do you believe this kind of variety should be expected from New World Crops' seed mixes?
Someone had offered me several different colors of each of the rootcrops on my list, but he asked for $350.
I'll have room to grow extra and share with others. I'm being offered small city lots to use as community gardens, parts of schoolyards, as well as 100ft long area on a local farm. But, don't have that kind of spending money, all at once.
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Post by orflo on Aug 28, 2011 0:48:55 GMT -5
Yes, I do have some colored ones, two purple varieties, one is a bit striped, brown-yellowish, two are yellow, one white and one is new, so I have to find out what color it is. I also do have aout one hundred oca varieties, but after elimination some will be discarded, so I'll probably keep seventy or eighty at the most.
The issue with these Andean tubers is that seed production is very low, oca needs a specific climate for seed formation, and yacon is almost sterile, I'm trying to cross it in with a wild smallanthus variety(this worked) and try to cross this into yacon again, in order to produce seeds and thus variability. The only yacons that did produce seeds are the two purple colored ones, let's hope they can be back-crossed this autumn, the hybrid variety is already flowering and the true yacons should be flowering within ten days.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2011 15:30:46 GMT -5
I grow a tuberous sunflower, called the Jerusalem Artichoke. It's seeds seem to be entirely sterile, but each one of the fattest roots sends up new shoots, so close together, that it must be rigorously harvested in order to be productive.
I have found cross breeding experiments between Jerusalem Artichokes, and common sunflowers, which result in a form of hybrid vigor. In online images, the offspring are giants.
We have a native oxalis, called yellow wood sorrel, which becomes invasive in moist garden beds. While I have never seen seed, there are pea-sized tubers, hanging in the roots. This might also impart vigor in crossbreeding experiments.
In our summer equinox, the sun goes down around 9PM. Near winter solstice, sunset is about 5:00 PM. So, we may or may not have more favorable conditions for root formation.
Regardless, if you're interested in selling some discarded rootlets of oca or of yacon, please send a private message.
Also, in case it may be useful to someone, I don't mind sharing some of our native Oxalis, or anything else.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Aug 28, 2011 23:30:27 GMT -5
I grow a tuberous sunflower, called the Jerusalem Artichoke. It's seeds seem to be entirely sterile, but each one of the fattest roots sends up new shoots, so close together, that it must be rigorously harvested in order to be productive. I have found cross breeding experiments between Jerusalem Artichokes, and common sunflowers, which result in a form of hybrid vigor. In online images, the offspring are giants. Yes, i've read a few interesting articles about those hybrids. I planted Jerusalem Artichokes (or as Joseph like to call them Sunchokes) for the first time this year, and i planted them from seed. (I got the seed from some company in Kansas) I'm fairly certain many of the seeds germinated and produced plants, because i planted them in the same row as my sunflowers (hoping to get some hybrids), and i have observed many small sunflower plants that somewhat resemble the wild sunflowers nearby, but the sunchokes often appear to have "crumpled" flowers for whatever reason. I saw bees pollinating them just like all the other sunflowers though. I will have to go try and see if they produced any tiny seeds, and also figure out when to dig up the roots looking for tubers. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2011 23:53:16 GMT -5
I've also considered plying with Dahlia cross pollination, as they are said to be in the same family and form edible tubers, not that I have any scientific reason to believe it would necessarily be successful. (  I have lots of ideas for developing food plants. ) |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 29, 2011 0:18:38 GMT -5
I planted Jerusalem Artichokes (or as Joseph like to call them Sunchokes) for the first time this year, and i planted them from seed. (I got the seed from some company in Kansas) I'm fairly certain many of the seeds germinated and produced plants, Almost... I can't call them Jerusalem artichokes, because people say "I don't like artichokes", and I don't want to always be trying to explain something that people can't understand. And I wouldn't want to call them sun-chokes because it's hard to market a food that "chokes" people.... So I call them sunflower roots, or sunroots for short. I have a couple dozen plants growing that came out of a seed packet from the same Kansas seed company. Germination and survival rate was around 75%. (They started out slow, so some of them got unintentionally chopped out while weeding.) I've dig the roots after a hard fall frost, or early in the spring. |
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 29, 2011 4:30:19 GMT -5
We have a native oxalis, called yellow wood sorrel, which becomes invasive in moist garden beds. While I have never seen seed, there are pea-sized tubers, hanging in the roots. This might also impart vigor in crossbreeding experiments. We have a sorrel weed in this area as well. I've never noticed tubers but it definitely has an extensive rhizome. But ours very definitely flowers and sets seed abundantly. It had occurred to me you might be able to cross it with oca or mashua. I'm not sure of the species but it is definitely an oxalis. Very sour oxalic taste when eaten, I like to eat a sprig of it hear and there when I am hand weeding, probably to much oxalate to eat a whole lot of though. Called "sourgrass" around here. Loaded with little yellow flowers and triangular seed pods. |
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Post by blueadzuki on Aug 30, 2011 16:46:57 GMT -5
We have a native oxalis, called yellow wood sorrel, which becomes invasive in moist garden beds. While I have never seen seed, there are pea-sized tubers, hanging in the roots. This might also impart vigor in crossbreeding experiments. We have a sorrel weed in this area as well. I've never noticed tubers but it definitely has an extensive rhizome. But ours very definitely flowers and sets seed abundantly. It had occurred to me you might be able to cross it with oca or mashua. I'm not sure of the species but it is definitely an oxalis. Very sour oxalic taste when eaten, I like to eat a sprig of it hear and there when I am hand weeding, probably to much oxalate to eat a whole lot of though. Called "sourgrass" around here. Loaded with little yellow flowers and triangular seed pods. Maybe what he has is Beauty of the woods, aka Fairy Spuds. That sort of looks like oxalis, though the flowers are usually pink ,not yellow. but there could be yellow flowered strains |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2011 23:03:21 GMT -5
Does anyone cook with these? I saw a soup recipe with marigold leaves and egg.
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Post by atash on Sept 1, 2011 0:41:03 GMT -5
"Marigold leaves" is more likely to be Calendula, not Tagetes. Both plants are called "Marigolds"; Calendula was the first to be called that but got displaced when Tagetes became super-popular as an annual bedding plant.
There are some culinary Tagetes though.
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Post by raymondo on Sept 1, 2011 7:41:10 GMT -5
I wonder if the Jerusalem artichoke seed from that Kansas supplier is actually seed of Helianthus maximiliani, closely related and used by native Americans in a similar fashion. These are usually propagated from seed. Seed set on Helianthus tuberosus (Jerusalem artichoke) is so rare that I suspect such seeds would be worth a small fortune.
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I have lots of ideas for developing food plants. )
