Andean vegetables 2014

[billw]

Mauka seedling progress. They are outgrowing mashua in the same bed. I didn't expect such fast growth. I'm going to have to move them since the hoop house will be used for producing mashua seed this fall. I also want to keep the mauka going for seed, so I think I may have to build another hoop house.

[richardw]

May 18, 2014 16:00:48 GMT -5 richardw said:

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.

This plant popped up in my compost pile in the autumn,i potted it up and grew inside the tunnelhouse for the winter ,it didn't end up getting much larger even after transplanting into a bigger pot,the last few weeks its started to turn yellow even though its getting really warm in the tunnelhouse,so,i pulled it out and found this beneath.
The seed would have come from some of Franks Oca he sent me years ago.



Question is now that its spring tomorrow,do i put it in the fridge for a few weeks and then plant outside?

[billw]

I would just leave it alone until it sprouts. Some of mine were three months late after forming in the winter, but they eventually sprouted and they're catching up now. You can also do a 1 hour soak in 30PPM GA3 and that seems to get them going.

[billw]

So, arracacha... has anybody else here grown it?

My one plant is doing surprisingly well, considering that we probably have a lot less heat than it is accustomed to. It has branched out into what looks like a good six basal cuttings. I'd like to keep it going in the greenhouse over the winter in the hope of getting seed (assuming that seed production is day length dependent), which will involve transplanting it. Would it be best to take the cuttings and start multiple plants at that time or just transplant it whole and take cuttings for new plants in the spring? I'm leaning toward the latter, thinking that larger plants may be more inclined to go to seed.

[richardw]

Aug 31, 2014 11:19:37 GMT -5 billw said:

I would just leave it alone until it sprouts. Some of mine were three months late after forming in the winter, but they eventually sprouted and they're catching up now. You can also do a 1 hour soak in 30PPM GA3 and that seems to get them going.

Ok ,thanks Bill,i'll chuck it back in a pot and leave outside from now on,but make sure they are covered during spring frosts though

[richardw]

Arracacia xanthorriza sounds rather interesting,certainly never heard of anyone growing it here

[rowan]

I grow arracacha but haven't had a lot of success with it so far. Last year the plant (the one plant that survived the winter before) grew well but did not produce tubers so before winter I divided it and transplanted the divisions to my poly tunnel. They are looking good now so if they survive the heat in there over summer I am hoping for tubers next winter.
The trouble is they take so long to tuberise and I am not that patient. I am also not sure if I will get seed if mine eventually flower as I just have one clone and I have not found out yet if they need cross pollinating.

[billw]

Arracacha is tetraploid and self-fertile, so it should set seed and produce variable progeny. I recall reading somewhere that the Brazilian breeding program got several different colored roots from the seeds of a single clone. Do you know the origin of your plants, Rowan?

[rowan]

I will have to think, there is only one place in Australia that I have found them selling and I have no idea where they got theirs originally. Nice to hear that I might get seeds, now I will have to wait and see if they will in my conditions.

[cesarz]

Aug 31, 2014 11:25:58 GMT -5 billw said:

So, arracacha... has anybody else here grown it?

Apparently it is here in NZ and Crop&Food is trying to de-virus them since 2004 and that is such a long time ago that they announced it. Also during that time they were de-virusing the Ulluco and they have released the Ulluco since five years ago but never heard of any news about releasing the arracacia yet.

[steev]

billw: nice raised beds; what gauge and length PVC do you find holds up what cover? Do you have very windy conditions?

[billw]

Sept 1, 2014 23:15:38 GMT -5 steev said:

billw: nice raised beds; what gauge and length PVC do you find holds up what cover? Do you have very windy conditions?

3/4 PVC seated onto 18 inches of exposed rebar pounded 30 inches into the ground. I squirt expanding foam insulation into the pipe and then seat it on the rebar, which makes for a very strong connection. I use two ten foot lengths joined for a hoop house with about a 10 foot width at the floor.

Conditions are extremely windy in the first half of winter, with many storms that exceed 60MPH winds, but freezing temperatures almost never coincide, so I take the cover off before every big storm. It's a pain, but it only takes about an hour to skin it. I've lost the skin a few times when the forecast let me down, but I just use the relatively cheap crawlspace-type plastic, not the expensive greenhouse stuff, so it isn't a major loss.

[steev]

Schedule 40 PVC, I assume. I also get high winds, but wouldn't often be on-site to make cover-adjustments. I'm inclined to worry about the 20' lengths I'd use folding under stress. Oh, well, nothing ventured, etc.

[billw]

Rowan, here's some info on arracacha flowering:

Bajaña (1994) conducted a two-factorial greenhouse
trial varying night temperatures (5-8°C vs. 12-15°C) and photoperiod (10 hours
vs. 15 hours). Of the 10 genotypes used, only three flowered. Flowering responses
were in general weak (only 15 out of a total of 160 plants). The treatments with
short days and low night temperatures did not have statistically significant effects
on flowering. In a collateral experiment, the same author removed the storage
roots from mature plants and left the crowns to dry until they lost about half of
their weight.
Eighty percent of the replanted crowns flowered. Recent
experiments with the same clone (from San José de Minas, Ecuador) showed that
dehydration of mature plant crowns (20-30% weight loss) and subsequent
culturing of the crowns induces, in over 90% of plants tested, the formation of
nearly as many inflorescences as there are cormels in a plant (Hermann, 1996,
unpublished results; see Fig. 6). These results confirm observations of Dr F.F.
Santos in Brazil (1994, pers. comm.), who has repeatedly seen vigorous flowering
responses in arracacha plantations that were subjected to drought, such as in
abandoned fields in Goiás. Farmers in Ecuador also report increased flowering
after spells of dry weather. Since drought (in Brazil) is often associated with short
photoperiods and low temperatures,
the effects of these factors cannot be
separated. On the basis of present evidence, however, it is dehydration rather
than vernalization that induces flowering in arracacha

[rowan]

Thanks for that, it is very helpful.