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Post by richardw on Feb 11, 2014 4:06:06 GMT -5
I had the tray of Oca seed in potting mix in the fridge weeks,two days ago i took out and put it a shady part of my hothouse where it wasn't to hot,had a look this evening and i have a few seedlings popping up.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 11, 2014 13:06:57 GMT -5
I wasn't planning on growing oca, but I just received a package containing oca and mashua tubers. Guess I'll be growing them.
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Post by billw on Feb 11, 2014 14:03:51 GMT -5
Richard - excellent! Have you found that stratification helps in the past? Mine seemed to grow just fine without any.
Joseph - That should be an interesting challenge in your climate! Oca will probably be a little easier than mashua (mashua really suffers in any combination of hot and dry), but I imagine getting them both to mid-November unfrosted will take some engineering.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 11, 2014 14:15:09 GMT -5
Yikes! Frost for me is mid-September. Mid-November usually has a foot of snow and frozen ground.
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Post by billw on Feb 11, 2014 16:11:59 GMT -5
Yeah, they don't even start to form tubers until after the autumn equinox, so your average first frost will kill them before the kickoff. If you are determined, you can give them frost protection or black them out six weeks before your ideal harvest, or in your climate, probably both. Realistically, they're probably greenhouse plants for you at best.
I often read about your projects and think that I'd like to join in, but then I realize that we are about as climatologically separated as you can get in the US. Oca grows great here, but I couldn't grow an ear of corn or a melon to save my life.
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Post by kevin8715 on Feb 11, 2014 21:06:42 GMT -5
Anyone now how long to stratify for? I have around 45 seeds left (planted 30) . Is there a limit to how long they can be stratified? I wanted to do an early fall planting to avoid heat (it is mild here enough to overwinter).
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Post by steev on Feb 11, 2014 21:54:57 GMT -5
The seeds I planted unstratified have now produced a fourth sprout. I think when I get around to up-potting seedlings, I'll do it over paper, so I can shake and catch any loose medium to put it back in the pot. Having clumsily dumped the whole pot and scooped it all back once, I have no idea how deep seeds are buried, so what have I got to lose? I may be churning this pot and harvesting seedlings for years, "not that there's anything wrong with that".
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Post by cesarz on Feb 12, 2014 4:09:19 GMT -5
As i told Richard I believed two weeks stratification is needed, BUT! we had a cold snap for just one week here last week and another lot of 20 seedlings are emerging!
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Post by richardw on Feb 12, 2014 13:13:29 GMT -5
Well it seems to have worked Cesar,even though ive only three so far to germinate they were up within 24 hours of going outside,so that shows that they were germinating while they were at 2-3Cdeg in the fridge.
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Post by steev on Feb 15, 2014 13:04:25 GMT -5
The first of my tuber-planted oca is sprouted.
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Post by richardw on Feb 15, 2014 18:24:57 GMT -5
Good work
I still only have three seedlings up,wonder what would happen if i pluck them out into a pot and put the tray back into the fridge
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Post by billw on Feb 15, 2014 21:00:19 GMT -5
How wet is your soil, Richard? I have done no stratification and I am over 70% sprouted out of ~2400 seeds at 9 weeks. I keep the soil soggy. When the surface is not sodden, I get very little sprouting.
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Post by richardw on Feb 15, 2014 23:28:22 GMT -5
I'm keeping it quite wet
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Post by steev on Feb 17, 2014 19:51:52 GMT -5
False alarm on the sprouted oca tuber; just some random green crap that had been blown into the pot. Back to watchful optimism.
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Post by kevin8715 on Feb 18, 2014 0:38:13 GMT -5
My curiosity got the best of me. Scratched the surface a bit and found a seed with a considerably for its size a long root. Hoping to at least get 5-10 seedling from 30 sown considering mediocre conditions (has dried out a bit twice and temperatures have been in the 80's and 90's).
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