jicama

[littleminnie]

What is the farthest north anyone has grown jicama (started indoors)?

[bunkie]

Yes Littleminnie, we've grown Jicama here a couple years ago, and will be trying it again this year. Hubs loves the stuff!

We started them inside in soil blocks and transfered outside when the temps warmed up. The plants were quite lovely and grew pretty fast, tho we were hit with an unusually early frost and lost the plants due to lack of protection.

[steev]

Thinking about jicama and runner beans, which make tubers attractive to gophers and potentially destroyed by cold, I'm going to try planting them in plastic pots that I've drilled holes up the sides of. I think that will fend off the gophers and make it easy for me to run a trenching shovel down the sides, so I can lift them for winter storage.

[jbl4430]

Here is 5b-6a Niagara Falls. I tried last year but I got only small root, almost impossible.

[blueadzuki]

Yes it's tought. Ahipa's not much easier. It's a touch more cold tolerant that regular Jicama, but still not enough to really take cold temps. And it takes FOREVER to set up a tuber (and if it decides to flower (which is usually does before tubering) it usually won't at all) Bearing in mind I have yet to get a tuber from ANYTHING, I would guess the best bet for us up here in the cold regions would be to plant ahipa in big pots indoors really really early (like the fall before) then transplanting the plants into the ground (or the drilled pots suggested) as soon as the frosts are done. Then maybe you can get tuberization.

[steev]

I mostly do my tuberizing on the couch.

[12540dumont]

They were weeds in my yard in San Diego. Alas, not a one here. I suppose I could try starting them in fall?

[cletus]

I got baseball sized tubers on my P. ahipa last year in SW Virginia, but I was always down on the ground picking off the beautiful purple flowers. Most were a bit smaller than a baseball. Really freaking tasty, I liked it better than jicama, it was a bit sweeter.

[littleminnie]

I hadn't heard of ahipa before. Sounds like growing jicama up here is like trying to grow globe artichokes, lots of work and time. It is so tasty! With hub on Medifast we have been resorting to other veggies and both love jicama now. Are ahipa seeds available anywhere?

[cletus]

I found mine on eBay, on one plant I let produce seedpods and they appear to take quite a long time to mature, so this is a problem for us in more temperate climates cuz you can't propagate from the tubers. You'd have to keep one indoors for continued seed production/propagation.

[blueadzuki]

Personally, I'd go to Sacred Succulents. Having bought ahipa seeds both from the seller on ebay and Sacred I can testify that, at least visually, the seed from the two sources is the same i.e. both black seeded and purple flowered (I do not definitvely know if ahipa has visually different strains, but I have heard rumors of pink and white flowered versions as well). The main reason I reccoment sacred over the ebay source is simply one of safety. The ahpia seller on ebay is located in Bolivia, so buying from him always carries the standard out of the country risk of Customs seizing the seed. Mine got through alright, but I bought it before the last tightening of Customs; it may be a lot harder to get lucky now. Whearas sacred is located inside the US and, as far as I can tell, so is thier seed stock, so no customs comes into play on your end.

[materman]

I live in west central Missouri and have tried growing them from transplants several times. Got a lot of vine but the tubers were not what you see in the supermarket. They say they love really poor soil, so that might have been my problem. Mine resembled skinny sweet potatoes with bumps.