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Post by jbl4430 on Feb 24, 2012 19:16:53 GMT -5
My climate zone is 5b.
Possible for jicama?
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Post by blueadzuki on Feb 25, 2012 1:21:27 GMT -5
In theory, Jicama's cousin, ahipa, might be able to tuberize up here (It's Andean, and so used to cold). Im practice however, even that needs to be put in a pot and brough in over the winter, since, like a lot of Andean crops, it's not equipped to handle actual freezing conditions (it's used to temps like late march to earlt april....year round) and takes ages to actually tuberize (several years, quite often) And you have to sacrafice any and all flowers for that time, since the energy they use drains the tuber (on the other hand, since seed is hard to get, it may be worth keeping a plant or two as "breeders" to keep your seed supply up. If you still want to do it, www.ebay.com/itm/15-SEEDS-Ajipa-Yam-Bean-Pachyrhizus-ahipa-Andean-jicama-/200329859361?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ea4971121 |
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Post by orflo on Feb 25, 2012 14:01:47 GMT -5
You'lll have a hard time growing jicama, although solanaseeds lists one variety for northern circumstances (anybody tried this?). They take ages to tuberise, need lots of warmth and sun, and take up some space as well. As for ahipa, it does tuberise in one season, although a long season. It does want the warmth and heat as well, and if you really want tubers on this one, remove the flowers. The plants put their energy in flowering and more especially in seed production, and that way tubers aren't formed. A second thing to note is the abscence of a bacteria that is quite essential to form good tubers on ahipa. I imported some roots, placed them in the ground right next to the ahipas, and tubers weren't really enormously big, but acceptable, so acceptable that mice ate the all but a small one...  . Ahipa doesn't take up as much space as jicama, but it's harder to obtain. There should be some more varieties that are better suited for colder climates, but only cipotato has got these available, and they don't send them out of Peru any more...It's a very fine crop, the taste is even better than yacon, but it just takesso much heat and this very long growing season...Yacon should be the best option for your climate, or perhaps that solanaseeds jicama?  |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 25, 2012 14:31:53 GMT -5
The plants put their energy in flowering and more especially in seed production, and that way tubers aren't formed. That is what people used to tell me about potatoes. However my experience has been that the plants that are adapted well enough to my garden to produce lots of seeds are also the best producers of tubers. |
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Post by orflo on Feb 25, 2012 14:47:50 GMT -5
Well, potatoes aren't ahipa...  ...I've had the experience, plants who grow seeds don't produce even the smallest of tubers, plants without the flowers produce tubers. This is in fact something that has been known for centuries in their countries of origin. It's hard just to compare two different plants, even if they still have a flowering and tuberisation characteristic in commun. They belong to a different family (just compare the pea-sized seeds of ahipa and the small potato seeds), another fabaceae plant that produces tubers and seeds is lathyrus tuberosus, but this one hasn't got the bigger seeds that are more likely to appear in the lathyrus species, but they produce relatively small seeds, so the energy isn't put into forming these. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 25, 2012 15:50:50 GMT -5
plants who grow seeds don't produce even the smallest of tubers, plants without the flowers produce tubers. This is in fact something that has been known for centuries in their countries of origin. That same wisdom has been known for centuries in regards to potatoes. That's how we ended up with the Irish potato famine, and it's why today the entire commercial potato crop are male sterile clones. It's a dangerous place to be with potatoes, and with any other species. I will continue to select for tuber crops that also produce an abundance of seeds. |
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Post by orflo on Feb 25, 2012 16:33:21 GMT -5
I do understand your point of view, and it's also my point of view, don't misunderstand me here but some things are just harder to select than others, that's why south America ended up with six thousand or more potato species, and only some 50 (I guess, I couldn't find any recent numbers) jicama species. That's why Europe has got only one skirret (ever tried to select these, I know someone who has done so for years, no results...?). If everything is so easily compared to potatoes, the world would have had ocas and ahipas and...producing during our summers... |
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Post by jbl4430 on Feb 25, 2012 18:49:42 GMT -5
In theory, Jicama's cousin, ahipa, might be able to tuberize up here (It's Andean, and so used to cold). Im practice however, even that needs to be put in a pot and brough in over the winter, since, like a lot of Andean crops, it's not equipped to handle actual freezing conditions (it's used to temps like late march to earlt april....year round) and takes ages to actually tuberize (several years, quite often) And you have to sacrafice any and all flowers for that time, since the energy they use drains the tuber (on the other hand, since seed is hard to get, it may be worth keeping a plant or two as "breeders" to keep your seed supply up. If you still want to do it, www.ebay.com/itm/15-SEEDS-Ajipa-Yam-Bean-Pachyrhizus-ahipa-Andean-jicama-/200329859361?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ea4971121Thank you, I ordered ajipa. Once again Thank you Wood,Orfolo,Joseph too. |
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Post by jbl4430 on Feb 25, 2012 21:24:40 GMT -5
Well, potatoes aren't ahipa... ...I've had the experience, plants who grow seeds don't produce even the smallest of tubers, plants without the flowers produce tubers. This is in fact something that has been known for centuries in their countries of origin. It's hard just to compare two different plants, even if they still have a flowering and tuberisation characteristic in commun. They belong to a different family (just compare the pea-sized seeds of ahipa and the small potato seeds), another fabaceae plant that produces tubers and seeds is lathyrus tuberosus, but this one hasn't got the bigger seeds that are more likely to appear in the lathyrus species, but they produce relatively small seeds, so the energy isn't put into forming these. The plants grown in zone 5 yielded some large tubers (around 11 cm in diameter) and some smaller (5-6 cm). But all of them tasted great, especially raw, with a pleasant sweet taste. Plants were started in May and planted outside in early June. Can be grown with some success in the north (zone 5) if you give it extra care. ? |
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...I've had the experience, plants who grow seeds don't produce even the smallest of tubers, plants without the flowers produce tubers.