Oca

[wingnut]

That would be great, I PM'd you my address.

[wingnut]

Thank you Richard for these beautiful seed oca. I will propagate them madly, and freely share them as you have done to me.

[Medbury Gardens]

So pleased they made it Doug

In the photo of yours the yellow ones at 11.00 o'clock fascinate quite a bit,dont know why but it seems to be the most vigorous plants that do it.The red ones at 7.00 o'clock don't all.

Any way fascinating or not they still taste nice

[wingnut]

I am very excited to actually eat some. My friend came down and put in 120' of three varieties, and I will have my hoophouse erected over them before inclement weather strikes. So maybe this is the year?! The tubers from you I think will be grown indoors under lights to hopefully get tubers to plant in May.Do you think this is my best course of action?
Thanks again
wingnut

[Medbury Gardens]

Yes i think so,if you can grow them as an indoor plant over your coming winter and plant out in spring,but then again you may get some small Oca before winter if they are under plastic.I found that they can handle up to -4C of frost in the hoophouse i used just resonantly and were still alive on our shortest day 22nd june.

[wingnut]

We have a large volume of water which runns through our property sept-may.We are planning to run three micro-hydroelectric plants to heat/supplemental light the hoophouse. But I don't think that will be happening this year. I do have full indoor lighting, and am setting up a tissue culture lab/ thermal grow-out area in my basement. So I should be able to get them through spring.

[wingnut]

Here is a photo of the white, rose, and pink varieties planted out.They were put in a little late, but will be haveing my hoophouse put up over then next month.

[Medbury Gardens]

That's handy that you have the capabilities of producing your own micro-hydroelectric power on your property, i wish i could.
New Zealand been a mountainous country has so much potential for private micro-hydroelectric power production,a friend of mine works for a company installing pumping and irrigation equipment,he recons half there work now is micro-hydroelectric installment.

Your Oca may be a little late but given you'll be able to keep them growing well into the late season you should get some tubers at least.

When i was first given the Oca tubers that i sent you,they were these horrible little dried things about the size of ya thumb nail,i didnt think they were even going to come up but some did and grew a dam good crop in the end too.

[wingnut]

I figure I have enough volume and drop to get around 5KW. My desire is to heat a 20' X 40' double wall hoophouse thru winter. I would like to keep it at 65-70 deg F. Love to have a couple dwarf citrus, pomegranate, maybe a papaya, or even a banana!

[wingnut]

Some 'ROSE' oca that was harvested from a 8" pot that was forced to tuberize in mid August.

[Elizabeth]

I've been wanting to grow some Oca since I first read about them in "Plants for a Future" a few years ago. I think I have the perfect climate for them - we almost never get frost here so they would be able to keep growing well into fall/early winter. Problem is, the tubers are so hard to come by in the US. I found one site that had all these wonderful varieties - they only sell to Europe...sigh

Territorial appears to have had only one variety (which was expensive), and Nichols had an assortment, but there is no indication if they will be selling again this winter. Are there any additional US sources (or places that ship to the US) out there that I'm not finding or should I just keep checking back to see if Nichols re-lists in November or December?

[Medbury Gardens]

Unfortunately Elizabeth i think you may well be to far south to be able to grow them to tuber stage,here in New Zealand growers in the far north which are about 35 deg north can grow excellent foliage but because the day light hours dont get short enough the plants dont grow there tubers.
San Diego is even closer the Equator at 32 deg south.
But hey give it a go,ya never know

[Medbury Gardens]

Well done Doug,they look nice clean skinned tubers,how are the ones doing that i sent you??

[wingnut]

Richard these were grown in a pot, that was blacked out since mid august, my inground crop needs another 3-4 weeks I think. I got 120' under plastic, with 1 1/2" tubers that I should be able to keep frost free through November.
As for the ones I got from you, they are doing great, and will be getting their light cut back for tuberization soon, now that I know I can get good sized ones in a pot!

[Medbury Gardens]

That good to hear they are doing well,I'm very keen to see if you have the two yellow ones fasciate like i experienced this past season ,though its the one with the red eyes that does it more than the pure yellow,have you had Oca do that as well Doug??

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