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Post by billw on May 18, 2014 13:50:55 GMT -5
Starting a new thread from the Oca flowering thread. That thread became kind of a catch-all for Andean vegetables and was getting a bit cluttered, so maybe we can reconvene here. |
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Post by billw on May 18, 2014 14:30:54 GMT -5
I've been really busy with both my real job and what has now kind of changed from a hobby to a second job, so I haven't been posting as much, but there is still a lot going on.
We have 1/3 of an acre of oca this year, with 66 established varieties, 24 new varieties that were last years seedlings, and another ~500 seedlings in the ground. Due to an unexpected two week period of dry windy weather, I lost almost half the seedlings (started with over 1000), which was really disappointing. I thought that I had lost more than that, but many of them grew back.
I have a handful of ocas that produced tubers at about three months of age while under 12 hours of artificial light. The hope is that these are day-length neutral varieties, although there may be something else going on. There's only one way to find out. I broke dormancy with 30PPM GA3 and they are now getting established in pots for later transplant.
We're growing 800 ulluco plants of 18 varieties. I have them laid out in a pattern that maximizes the possibility of natural cross pollination, but that will also be a complete pain in the ass to harvest. I hope to get more ulluco seed this year.
Last year's ulluco seed hasn't done much. Six of the seeds have split open and then undergone some amount of swelling, revealing green material inside, but they have all dried and died within a week. I don't really understand what is going on there. It is possible that the seeds are not opening naturally, but that an animal or insect is breaking them. There does appear to be live embryo within the seed, so I remain hopeful. Possibly, the seeds need to be opened and the embryo grown on clean media for better shot at survival. I have a few seeds set aside to experiment with. The rest will continue to sit in pots outside, exposed to the weather. In the Finnish study, they found most germination between 18 and 30 months, so I may just need to continue to be patient.
We have a 1400 square foot yacon patch this year with six to eight varieties (I'm still trying to figure out if some are duplicates). I'm hopeful for seed, but even if the weather cooperates, the odds of getting viable seed appear to be quite low.
We have a lot of mashua this year. I'm not really sure how much, as I have planted some almost anywhere there is something to climb - along fences, a broken down RV, up the side of our storage building, climbing up gorse along our property line. We must have 1-200 plants. I'm also growing eight varieties together in a high tunnel, which I will skin in the fall, hoping to get a good quantity of seed for a mass sowing next year. Although I don't think it tastes that great, I like the milder varieties about as much as turnip. Different varieties of mashua have a lot of good qualities that would be very interesting if combined. For example, I'd love to produce a day-length neutral, brightly colored, and mild tasting mashua. All of those traits exist, just not in the same variety.
We have a 50 foot bed of maca grown from seed saved last year. I had hoped to see more regular germination from this batch, but it is still just as unpredictable as the seed that I started with. We'll see if selecting for the largest early roots has had any impact yet, probably by August.
I'm also growing 90 ahipa plants. My last experience with ahipa was disappointing, but I was encouraged to try it again by learning a little more. One interesting tidbit: I got 94% germination from four year old seed. That's pretty good! I'll be trying several things with the ahipa this year. For three groups of 30 plants, I plan to remove all flowers from one group, remove all flowers but the first four from the second group, and remove no flowers from the third group. This will give me a better chance to see the effect of reproductive pruning on tuber size. I then plan to reserve ten tubers from each group to replant next year to see if any have a tendency to produce multiple tubers and if the reproductive pruning has any influence on this.
I am also growing a few more achiras from seed. So far, this is the only Andean tuber that I am not impressed with. Although it will grow here, I think it wants more heat. I also find the tuber unappealing with a bland flavor and unpleasant mix of textures. Still, I often find that bad first impressions with new vegetables are more the result of lack of knowledge about growing and preparing than about the intrinsic characteristics of the plant.
Oh, and we're growing three varieties of achocha this year - two small-fruited varieties that we've been growing for several years and a new one that is said to be large-fruited, up to 8-10 inches. That should be interesting. I'd like to do a mass cross and selection, but probably won't have time or space this year.
How about the rest of you? What are you growing this year? Does anyone have any particularly good results from oca seeds yet?
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Post by richardw on May 18, 2014 16:00:48 GMT -5
My only two Andean crops are Yacon and Aca,the 2 6x1m beds of Yacon have been knocked by frost for the winter,they did quite well but never flowered. Mt Oca growing consists of one 6x1m bed which has being under plastic for the last two weeks with two more weeks to go before its pulled off, then i can start digging up the crop underneath.There's also one mystery seedling that come up in a pot of compost/soil mix,the seed has to have come from my own annal varieties,cant think of anywhere else where it would have come from.  |
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Post by kevin8715 on May 18, 2014 16:40:00 GMT -5
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Post by rowan on May 18, 2014 17:21:15 GMT -5
Over the last couple of years I have been growing all the types of Andean crops I can get my hands on here in Australia, and that will grow where I live. My main problem with growing them is the scorching summers. I have ditched achocha as it is tasteless and difficult to cook with, and ahipa and jicama which I have found very difficult to grow here. I am still working on arrachacha and can't seem to get it to produce roots but I have just transplanted my plants to a polyhouse to try and fix that. Apart from a poor crop this season oca and yacon grow well here. I can't find a source for ulluco here, or mashua but I am not keen to try mashua due to poor reviews  I like having different years concentrating on native crops from different parts of the world and maybe next year it will be North Americas turn, not that I stop growing the others, it is just that each year I spend more energy trying to get seeds from one place or another. |
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Post by billw on May 18, 2014 17:29:31 GMT -5
You can't hijack it if you're talking about Andean vegetables and it certainly doesn't belong to me. Mauka seeds would be awesome. Go get 'em, Kevin!  |
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Post by raymondo on May 18, 2014 18:23:34 GMT -5
I grow yacon, though in small quantities, just to eat. I've tried oca many times but it gets too cold for them too quickly here. All I ever get is pea-sized tubers. I've given those up. I had ulluco once but the plants died. I grow achocha as a living mulch. It covers the ground in summer quite rapidly. You do have to keep it off other plants but that's no bother as I'm in the garden most days. It reseeds readily, is easily removed and winter kills. Very useful to cover any bare area as it completely shades out weeds.
I've never seen any other Andean crops offered here.
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Post by Tiirsys on May 18, 2014 19:57:40 GMT -5
"May 18, 2014 11:24:52 GMT -7 billw said:
Welcome Tiirsys! You should be in a good climate to get oca seeds if you have the right varieties.
Is your mauka established? I have mauka blanca for the second time as a cutting and it looks unfortunately like it is going to die on me for the second time. Looks like failure to root even though it is supposed to be easy to root. Bah!"
I actually just transplanted my Mauka out into my garden bed. It was a little shaky at first, but seems to be pulling through. Mine were obtained from cuttings as well. I assume I have Mauka Blanca. I have three cuttings from my original plants in a jar of water, waiting to see if they form roots. I don't have any root growth stimulator, or anything like that.
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Post by Tiirsys on May 18, 2014 20:26:39 GMT -5
Tiirsys: Okay, so that it is in this new thread I will re-cap on what Andean crops I am growing for this 2014 season:
Oca- Twilight (1), Unknown (1), Mexican Red (2), Rosy Gems (2), Amarillo (2), Sunset (1), Bolivian Red (2), Moonshine (2)
Mauka (2)
Mashua- Puca Anu (1), V. pilifera (6)
Yacon (5) crowns?
I also have some potatoes that are called Purple Peruvian potatoes, I don't know if they are what they are named, but they are a beautiful finger/odd shape potato with very dark shiny skin and dark, dark purple flesh. I swear they made seed last year, but I wasn't paying attention to say anymore about it other than I think they actually made seed. I seem to remember little potato berries. Rats got into where I was storing my meager harvest during the winter and ate all of the little spuds I had saved. I was very sore about it. Lo and behold spring comes, I was not as thorough getting the tiny potatoes as I thought, because I found a couple, and then a few more sprouted up in my compost. Now, here is why I think there was seed from these: I found a potato growing that had nothing old a nasty attached to it, just a nice looking little potato plant. SO, does that mean seeds, or am I just wishing too hard?
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Post by philagardener on May 18, 2014 20:56:47 GMT -5
Could be, but I've had fingerlings overwinter and sprout from microtubers that I missed when I harvested the previous fall.
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Post by khoomeizhi on May 19, 2014 4:12:57 GMT -5
aw, nuts, got there too late. they're gone already... so i'm just growing yacon (probably around 300 plants this year) and oca (this variety of which can struggle in the heat here) this year. still looking for mauka, arracacha, and a more heat-tolerant oca. |
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Post by Tiirsys on May 19, 2014 22:30:24 GMT -5
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Post by richardw on May 20, 2014 0:26:23 GMT -5
Good idea using those pallet like that,have you lined the inside with plastic so they dont rot
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Post by Tiirsys on May 20, 2014 1:05:20 GMT -5
The inside is lined with a good garden liner.
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Post by steev on May 20, 2014 1:50:48 GMT -5
Nice beds, but I like your dog better.
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