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Post by rowan on Jun 7, 2016 3:05:23 GMT -5
Up until recently there have only been NZ pink and a cream colored oca available here but now a few of us are growing out seed so we will have a few more in the future.
On another note, I have just cooked and eaten my first ulluco tubers. They taste exactly like beetroot so I really enjoyed them.
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Post by jeremy on Jun 11, 2016 23:45:11 GMT -5
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Post by billw on Jun 12, 2016 2:45:23 GMT -5
Excellent! Hopefully with seeds to follow.
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Post by philagardener on Jun 12, 2016 5:11:55 GMT -5
Looks great, jeremy ! Nice looking plants there! |
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Post by billw on Jun 16, 2016 1:30:39 GMT -5
First flower from this year's crop of yacon seedlings:  Noteworthy because it is so early. Typically, yacon does not flower until fall. There is a widely held assumption that flowering is a short day response, but this and a few other data points are making me suspicious that it may just be simple maturity and plants flower at 6-7 months. If that is true, it would be a good thing for yacon breeding, since plants could be started indoors during the winter, bringing flowering into the summer months. This would make things a lot easier. Also notable: get a load of that involucre. It is about twice as large as any other yacon flower that I've seen. Usually, they don't project beyond the ligules. What's it good for? Probably nothing. |
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Post by kevin8715 on Sept 17, 2016 23:23:27 GMT -5
 Three year old cannas edulis. A bit taller than me( 5'7). If anyone is interested, I have seed and can dig up tubers if you want a head start. |
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Post by billw on Sept 19, 2016 23:15:10 GMT -5
Very nice, Kevin. Achira likes heat. Mine rarely get more than ~3 feet tall.
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Post by billw on Sept 19, 2016 23:39:33 GMT -5
We're closing in on the exciting time of year for Andean vegetables in the northern hemisphere. I'm getting anxious to start digging stuff. In the meantime, the yacon project is coming along nicely. Amazingly well, in fact:  The table shows seeds collected from this year's yacon seedlings, sorted by seeds per flower head. The amazing thing is that a large number of them are producing ten or more seeds per flower. I was only able to collect about 1 seed per flower from the heirloom varieties in the best cases - some varieties produced much less than that. Yacon flower heads have an average of 14 female flowers, so 10 or more seeds probably indicates a total restoration of fertility, with a few of the flowers just not getting pollinated. Perversely, I am a bit disappointed in how easy that was, although it is nice that I will probably be able to get right to breeding for traits other than improved fertility. I suspect that growing yacon from seed will be commonplace in just a few years. |
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Post by orflo on Oct 6, 2016 14:03:46 GMT -5
Bill,
great stuff there! If frosts stay out long enough some seeds could develop here as well. The plants coming from your seeds also seem to produce more pollen than the 'fixed' varieties I've grown over the years, so that could indeed be a breakthrough. I confiem that yacon is not daylength sensitive when it comes to flowering, mine started flowering in the third week of August.
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Post by richardw on Oct 7, 2016 2:11:22 GMT -5
Good report there Bill.
All my yacon has disappeared, just rotted in the ground and yet it was a dry winter
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Post by billw on Oct 9, 2016 3:55:43 GMT -5
Bill, great stuff there! If frosts stay out long enough some seeds could develop here as well. The plants coming from your seeds also seem to produce more pollen than the 'fixed' varieties I've grown over the years, so that could indeed be a breakthrough. I confiem that yacon is not daylength sensitive when it comes to flowering, mine started flowering in the third week of August. Yes, I think that pollen production is the major difference, although so far the heirloom types are not producing much more seed than last year, so there may be more than one problem. I'm still not entirely sure what controls yacon flowering. Some are clearly day neutral, as they have flowered starting in July. However, there is a big jump in the number of varieties initiating flowering in late September that is not linked to the number of days that they have been growing. There may be some short day types mixed in. The heirlooms and the majority of the seedlings have flowered between 180 and 200 days. I have some plants that flowered much earlier, as low as 149 days. That is a full month earlier than Morado, which is the earliest heirloom to flower here. I hope you get some seed, but if not, I have plenty this year. I will begin harvesting the seedlings on Monday. I had hoped to leave them longer, but the weather looks like it will be very wet this year, so I have to make time for a long and messy harvest. Hopefully I will dig up something worth posting. |
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Post by MikeH on Oct 9, 2016 8:55:45 GMT -5
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Post by billw on Nov 10, 2016 22:07:42 GMT -5
A big ulluco development this year. This seedling began forming tubers back in August, well before the equinox, and ended up yielding just over 4 pounds. That's a really good result for ulluco. I hope it performs as well when grown from tubers!  |
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Post by steev on Nov 11, 2016 1:46:33 GMT -5
Certainly pretty; one wonders about flavor/utility. Do keep posting.
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Post by rowan on Nov 11, 2016 2:20:51 GMT -5
Wow Bill, that would put them on an equal footing with potatoes - well... if potatoes tasted like beets, lol. I am really loving ulluco as a staple. BTW, my potato seeds are germinating so I might have something to play with. I am looking forward to seeing what I can come up with in new potatoes  |
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