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Post by billw on Nov 11, 2014 20:29:20 GMT -5
Oca is usually eaten cooked and used just like a potato, although it can also be eaten raw. It contains oxalic acid, but most varieties aren't really much different than potato in oxalic acid content. There is a type (sour oca) that is much more acidic, but it is not commonly found outside the Andes.
Cooked mashua is similar to turnip and can be used the same way. Raw mashua is more like radish, but with a flavor that most people don't describe as delicious.
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Post by Tiirsys on Nov 19, 2014 19:44:19 GMT -5
Sorry I have been so lax about any sort of updates on my crops. My garden did a whole lot of nothing this year. I barely got enough just to replant for next year! Here are a couple pictures, and sorry they are horrible, but I had to use my phone since my real camera died whilst I was going to take pictures.  A blurry look at some Moonshine and Bolivian Red, as well as two Mauka's that swelled up a bit. Oh, and some tiny baby Hopin on the lower right, I think.  The top left is the biggest tuber I got, and it was labelled Twilight. The bottom is too shiny for me to tell... Top right is Mexican red, under that has to be Rosy Gems, and under that, Amarillo. At least it is all enough to plant more next year, this time in the ground! I put them all in pots with dirt, and in my greenhouse. I hope they survive. Oh, and I got just a few Mashua as well, but I had already potted them up. I don't remember if I previously mentioned my pitiful Yacon? Well, what I have is in pots now. It was weird, because when I dug it up you could not even see crowns on some of them. As if they just disappeared. |
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Post by kevin8715 on Nov 19, 2014 23:06:07 GMT -5
Have recieved word that his mauka is starting to flower, so if you want to try mauka from seed, go to the above link and send a PM. |
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Post by billw on Dec 3, 2014 3:02:50 GMT -5
Still... harvesting... oca.  Actually, I'm wondering if I will have any to harvest after this week. Temps down to 25F and the soil has been pretty frozen. Not our usual fall weather. I'll certainly have a lot of frozen tubers to sort out, but with temps that low, they may all be done for. If so, it isn't a terrible outcome as I got a lot harvested. Overall, this was a great year for the Andean crops, even with the early freeze. I harvested 450 new ocas from seed and I have select 65 to grow again next year. Collected even more oca seed than last year. I ended up with 18 mauka plants. Despite the huge plants, the roots were fairly small. Hopefully they will get a lot bigger in the second year. Harvested just under 800 pounds of yacon. Lost a lot of the rhizome to freezing temperatures. The next time that we have an early freeze, I think I will mound up soil around the base of the plants. Managed to get arracacha to grow and successfully divided the plant with 7/12 divisions surviving. It still doesn't look too promising for this climate, but I hope to get some seed from it. Grew about 700 maca plants and killed 90% of them trying to select for plants that make good roots. I feel like I'm missing something with this plant. I did almost 1000 hand crosses on mashua, from which I collected 70 seeds before the freeze wiped out all my work. That hurt. (But at least I have some seeds from interesting crosses to try next year.) I looked at my achiras. Poked at a fibrous rhizomy thing. Thought about eating it. Shrugged my shoulders. Grew a lot of ulluco and got a lot of ulluco seed. And that gave way to the highlight of the year for me:  That's a new ulluco. Now if I can just get a few more to germinate... I'm excited for next year. |
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Post by billw on Dec 3, 2014 3:05:32 GMT -5
How did your ocas turn out, Steev? Harvested yet, or still growing?
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Post by steev on Dec 3, 2014 3:12:42 GMT -5
Got to get to that; the weather has turned, though not so cold as yours. I'll report.
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Post by steev on Dec 3, 2014 19:59:02 GMT -5
Sorted through half the oca; very disappointing: few tubers, mostly tiny; I'd suppose my search was premature, but the tops were >95% dead. I'll re-plant for another try; better luck next year, no doubt.
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Post by billw on Dec 5, 2014 17:15:51 GMT -5
First year mauka seedlings:  Not really big enough to eat, but I guess they more typically take 2-3 years to size up. I was really happy with the results from seed. I have had almost entirely bad results sending or receiving cuttings. (Cuttings do take reasonably well here and I have a lot of potted cuttings from these plants, but sending cuttings through the mail seems to have a very low success rate.) Hopefully we can work out a way to get some serious seed production going. By the way, no dormancy. These plants were killed to the ground in last week's freeze and are already sprouting again. |
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Post by kevin8715 on Dec 5, 2014 18:49:00 GMT -5
Looks like yours have had more vigorous growth but obviously your climate is a whole lot more ideal than mine. Though lets see how they grow for me in the winter. So far the three plants seem fine, and there are four transplants ready for planting, will get to that this weekend.
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Post by orflo on Dec 8, 2014 15:47:50 GMT -5
My harvest has started a few weeks ago, the first ones to be lifted were the ocas. Lots of seeds were grown out from these, and the harvest was pretty good, unfortunately the gophers are always so hungry over here and they do prefer some varieties (as is the case with potatoes). I harvested about 60 varieties, and about 40 new ones had their first life year this year. Here are some pictures from the fixed varieties.  oca mix by orflo, on Flickr pink dragon and a heirloom variety from New Zealand:  oca pink dragon-nzr3 by orflo, on Flickr Sesam:  oca sesam by orflo, on Flickr Another heirloom from New Zealand (thanks Richard!  oca nzh2 by orflo, on Flickr a black variety, it becomes darker after a few weeks:  oca black by orflo, on Flickr Amarillo:  oca amarillo by orflo, on Flickr out of the breeding program: nr 1119:  oca 1119 by orflo, on Flickr again, breeding, nr 1113:  oca 1103 by orflo, on Flickr and this one also comes from seeds: 016:  oca 016 by orflo, on Flickr Perhaps, together with pink dragon, the best one out of the program: 014:  oca 014 by orflo, on Flickr |
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Post by billw on Dec 8, 2014 16:07:27 GMT -5
Beautiful pictures! Pink Dragon was awesome here this year. While the total yield wasn't among the best, the tubers were almost all large and unblemished. A very nice variety that shows that it is possible to get results that are superior to the heirlooms. I made a lot of crosses with it, so it will probably be showing up as a parent in next year's seedlings.
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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 8, 2014 17:19:49 GMT -5
Gorgeous and I need me some NZ tubers. They always look so bulky  |
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Post by steev on Dec 8, 2014 21:57:59 GMT -5
My harvest is looking punier and punier in comparison; gotta get some vole-poo.
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Post by billw on Dec 13, 2014 15:01:54 GMT -5
It wasn't easy, but I've selected 3 2013 oca varieties and 60 2014 varieties for further trial in 2015 (meaning that I'm retiring about 500): artcwiki.cultivariable.com/index.php/Trial_Ocas_2015They were selected under a broad set of criteria, primarily with the thought of producing interesting crosses, although there are a few that look like they may be superior to the heirloom varieties as they are. I'll grow 8 plants of each, pulling three on Sep 23, Oct 10, Nov 1 to check for earliness and tuber bulking rate, expect to lose one plant and harvest the remaining four to evaluate yield. |
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Post by iva on Dec 18, 2014 6:55:23 GMT -5
Orflo, those are just amazing looking tubers! I got some varieties from you a few years ago (2010, from your 2009 harvest) and of those I managed to only 'save' two, well three - as one of them gave me quite different offspring that I am growing as a separate variety. I'm guessing this variety is called Amarillo (or is it Twilight? you would know best what you had) and the one next to it is the different one. Which one of these is a more typical Amarillo, the lighter or the darker one?   And this is the other one I got from you, would you happen to know which variety it is (I'm guessing Red Mexican)? It gets darker in storage and has dark flesh, similar to the exterior color...  Thanks again for everything! Thanks to you, I'm growing things I never imagined I could!!  |
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