who grows oca?

[mountaindweller]

This year I sticked about 5 smallish oca tubers in the ground and they are growing nicely. I haven't harevested them yet (I think it's done just before the first frost), but the plants as such look nicely.
The thing is that I have grown them in shade, real shade under decidous trees. If this works, I could grow oca, which is a potato like crop in shade.
Maybe the tubers will be small if grown in shade?
It might not work everywhere as we are in 33° south.

[raymondo]

You're not much further south than me but I guess a different climate. Oca doesn't work here because it gets too cold too quickly. Despite that, I have tried growing it every year for the last five. Maybe one year I'll get lucky.

[rowan]

I grow it here in Southern Vic and it grows very nicely.

It does need shade and the tubers grow better if they in shade, I grow some under some deciduous trees and some in my shadehouse. Make sure you don't harvest them until a couple of weeks or more after they die down from frost. Don't be impatient, the tubers continue to grow a little as the plants die down.

Remember to heap some dirt on them now to get a bigger harvest as they are only just starting to grow the tubers now as the weatehr gets cooler.

When you harvest them store the ones you are going to eat for a week or two in a basket to get rid of any oxalic acid before you cook them and keep the rest that you are going to replant in a pot filled with slightly damp sawdust or potting mix till next spring.

I grow them every year and have no trouble with them. The only problem I have ever had is this year when I tried to grow a bed in full sun for an experiment and they just couldn't handle the sun and heat. That bed all died.

[mountaindweller]

Mine are growing in something which could be called deep shade, but how's the definition of deep shade. There are some big trees with a thick leaf covering. It is really great to be able to grow something starchy in otherwise not so useful garden space. I want to grow more next year, hopefully I will like them.
Ray I'm pretty sure you can grow them PFAF says: "Unknown in a truly wild situation, though plants have been found growing at heights up to 4000 metres in the Andes" www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Oxalis+tuberosa
I don't know were exactly they are from, the only thing which might not work is that you are too close to the equator and there might be some problems with the day length. Our average climate is colder than yours as we are further south, but I think your winters might get colder.

[bertiefox]

We grew them two years ago here in France and they gave us a fairly small crop from a couple of tubers.
We knew nothing about the post harvest treatment for oxalic acid so just steamed them and ate them, and I remember them having a very 'citric' taste and being not too pleasant. As a result, I didn't bother to keep any tubers for growing again.
Does the taste vary a lot when you leave them?

[mountaindweller]

They won't be that bad as the Kiwis eat them by the ton (apparently). But the Aussies eat a lot of beetroot.
I think it is the treatment which you missed out, maybe beetroot must be treated as well.

[richardw]

Yes they are a very popular foot crop over here,most of New Zealands yams as we call them are grown down the bottom of the South Island near the coast where the day light hours become shorter earlier and been near the coast dont get frosts till near winter.The far north they cant grow them at all .

I grow four different colours for koanga and also have some new colours from Frank who posts on here(forgotten his forum name).

Oca only start growing there tubers when the day/night hours hit 12/12 so the idea is to keep them growing for as long as you can into winter,by the end of April i will cover the bed in a clear plastic hopphouse so i can keep them growing till June.
Sorry rowan i don't agree with growing them in shade,mine are out in full sun and do well.

Photo taken this morning ,as you can see weve had a light frost already which has hit the corn a bit.


Last years crop




The four colours which are about up to 15cm long

[steev]

Those photos make me want to start growing oca.

[richardw]

You should steev,they are so yummy,after ive dug them i put them out some where sunny for about a month,this sweetens them up considerably

One of colours i grow are prone to fasciation,i dont like to sell any of them so we eat these

[rowan]

Go for it, they are a handy crop, especially if you want something to grow in a shaded spot where not many other food plants will grow.

Richardw - I wish my summers were cool enough to grow them in the sun, I suppose I could get off my bum and make a shade tunnel for them (and the yacon as well) to expand my growing area.

[richardw]

Our summers aren't want i would call cool,even though this past one was cool&cloudy,gardening in this inland valley surrounded by mountain ranges we are cut off from any cooling sea breezes,on average temps of 30C+ 42days per summer and 5days over 35C,humidity levels of 20 -60% on most of those days

[raymondo]

Apr 3, 2012 4:54:14 GMT -5 mountaindweller said:

Ray I'm pretty sure you can grow them PFAF says: "Unknown in a truly wild situation, though plants have been found growing at heights up to 4000 metres in the Andes" www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Oxalis+tuberosa
I don't know were exactly they are from, the only thing which might not work is that you are too close to the equator and there might be some problems with the day length. Our average climate is colder than yours as we are further south, but I think your winters might get colder.

Summer day time temps often hover around 25°C and nights often drop down to single digits. Winter nights are usually subzero and days can get to 15°C if it's clear and sunny, otherwise they stay in single digits.
I think my difficulties with oca are twofold: it gets too cold too quickly and daylength may be working against me.
As I said, I try every year but I've only ever harvested tubers the size of a pea. I have yet to harvest this year's crop though. Fingers crossed.

[mountaindweller]

I bet that there are varieties which work for different daylengths and there might be one which works further north. But I think that in Australia there is only one variety nothing yellow or elongated. Would be great trying different varieties.
I don't think that they do not grow in the sun I only think that if garden space is limited they can be grown in the shade too.

[richardw]

Thinking more about how you rowan need to grow yours is a shaded spots,i must be right on the limit of getting away with having them out in full sun,but even last summer we had a day when it hit 41.5C but they seemed to have handle that ok but i suppose its those days that Victoria can get when temps of up to 45C that can do the damage.
The main growing areas in NZ would hardly ever get over 30C

Its a pity i couldn't send some of these different types over the ditch to you fella's,there's no way customs would let them in.

[rowan]

I'll have to look up whether the seed is allowed in, I would love to buy some.

Raymondo - Probably not your problem but many people don't realise that they only start producing tubers a few weeks before the frost hits, not all the time they are growing. I have spoken to a couple of people who didn't know this and pulled them out early because they thought theirs were not productive.

Mountaindweller - I located some yellow ones in Aus last year and might have a few tubers to sell in the winter if you are interested. I won't have many but they grow awfully easily from cuttings so you can easily make plenty of plants out of one or two. Message me if you want a couple.