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Growing Oca: July 2010
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Top Tips for good yields. List of Oca Trials. Tuesday, 20 July 2010. This Oca Relative Tastes Better than Oca! Here's another Oxalis weed which has arrived on the plot. I only took notice of it when I dug it out with a trowel during some detailed weeding. It had a substantial (for the size of the plant) tuber. Having a curious nature, I washed it and tasted a corner. It tasted good, so I munched the whole thing. It tasted sweet, moist, succulent, and had no hint of oxalic acid. Update: My later post.
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Growing Oca: Extending the Oca Growing Season through Frost Protection
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Top Tips for good yields. List of Oca Trials. Thursday, 12 December 2013. Extending the Oca Growing Season through Frost Protection. The death of foliage from frost signals the end of the oca season, but at this time of year when tuberisation is in full swing, any slight extension of the growing season will have the maximum effect on crop yield. I stress that again; even one extra week without killing frost could easily have more effect on yield than any other factor over the whole growing period. Avoidi...
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Growing Oca: Skirret—Growing, Selecting (and Eating)
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Top Tips for good yields. List of Oca Trials. Friday, 3 January 2014. Skirret—Growing, Selecting (and Eating). From two sources last year; seed from a commercial supplier, and a few root-cuttings presumably from plants which had already received some selection. Seed-grown plants are highly variable, and give the chance to select for larger root production, so rather than lift the plants piecemeal as required for the kitchen, I'm checking the whole crop to choose and propagate from the best. I can also se...
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Growing Oca: September 2010
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Top Tips for good yields. List of Oca Trials. Monday, 27 September 2010. Inky Oca Lands in London! I've just received a sudden and unexpected surge of oca germplasm direct from darkest Peru! Thanks to friend, Joel Carbonnel. For giving me the pick from his box of mixed Andean tubers. Pride of place must go to this almost-black oca. It seems different to any of the other varieties. Its rarity (or non-existence? The second tuber was nearly ignored, being a variety that I already have, but. The tubers will ...
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Growing Oca: May 2010
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Top Tips for good yields. List of Oca Trials. Monday, 17 May 2010. Okay, so this is not about Oca. I am growing yacon again this year to try as a bi-crop with Oca, and as I was watering yesterday, I noticed one yacon plant that was different:. On the left is a normal yacon, with two leaves at each leaf node. On the right - the strange plant, with three leaves on each node. The leaves on adjacent nodes are rotated by 60º relative to each other, so I believe that makes it a decussate whorled pattern. The f...
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Growing Oca: June 2010
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Top Tips for good yields. List of Oca Trials. Monday, 14 June 2010. Early Sprouter, Early Flowerer. Yesterday, amongst the Oca / Sweetcorn bed. Alternatively, watering with dilute urine stimulates flowering, or then again it's just a freak occurrence. It gives me a chance to practice identifying Oca stylar morphs. This seems to be mid styled. I'm knowledgeable enough to know that it shouldn't work, but ignorant enough not to be sure it's impossible. There's nothing to loose by trying it. But these plants...
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Growing Oca: December 2009
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Top Tips for good yields. List of Oca Trials. Sunday, 6 December 2009. Tubers - Big and Few, or Small and Many? Fruit thinning works for gooseberries, could it work for Oca? Above) 6th December, a mass of stem-rooting tubers forming above ground. So how to maximise the proportion of large tubers? Remove some exposed tubers while small, so that the plant's reserves are concentrated into those remaining? An example of training Oca to grow upright (using canes) here: Thriftyliving. Links to this post. I've ...
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Growing Oca: October 2010
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Top Tips for good yields. List of Oca Trials. Thursday, 28 October 2010. Arracacha (Arracacia xanthorrhiza). may require some introduction. It's a high-yielding starchy root-crop popular in southern Brazil, and parts of the Andes. A member of the Umbelliferae family, and sometimes called the Peruvian Parsnip, it forms sizable crowns with several good-sized edible roots growing below, and propogation shoots above. Reports are divided on whether it is day-length sensitive. Just like the black Oca. There ar...
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Growing Oca: August 2010
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Top Tips for good yields. List of Oca Trials. Monday, 16 August 2010. Oca : Pest and Disease-Free - Not! Another of the things that is often repeated about Oca is that it is immune to disease and insect attack. Well, that would be nice, but deeper investigation reveals that in its home Andean habitat, it suffers serious attack by assorted nematodes, tuber borers, fungi and viruses. But the question is, how does it fare when faced with our native UK pestilence? For more on frost damage to foliage, and here.