Water chestnuts

[snohare]

Maybe I could grow some turtles in my water feature?

I think this would be turtley against all wildlife care regulations.

As for the original suggestion, I am chest nut the person to ask. But I believe that suppliers to Chinese restaurants etc have it flown in by the plane load from Thailand and Vietnam, places like that, on a daily basis. So presumably it would be fresh...just looking for a good fleece jacket !

My ocas were badly nibbled the first year. Second year the survivors were neglected, did better. Moving house too often did away with most of them, so I only have a few now.
I have learned it will will crop much better if buried at around this time of year. If nothing else, it seems to limit slug damage. And if you don't bury them, the tubers do not bulk up nearly so well.
In fact, I don't wait until the foliage dies back with the frost - on the contrary, if you put soil over the stems before that, they become tubers, thus multiplying the numbers ! (Something I learned by accident with the neglectees.) So anytime soon now, I will be heaping soil...
Mine are the yellow ones, if you want a swap PM me.

I too thought that bacon butty thing was one of the Vine's rasher moments.

[veggiechicken]

Sorry to hear about your nibbled ocas! Hope it wasn't too painful.
I find it difficult to know what to do with mine for the best, so suspect I'll just wait and see what happens. They're in a dustbin and I "earthed" them up with straw as I thought they might be a bit like potatoes but there isn't the space to pile earth on the stems to spread them out. Maybe next year. However, I can rummage around in the straw and have seen some bright red objects lurking in it. Not very big though so they can stay for a while longer.
A swap would be interesting - I like the thought of a multicoloured plate of ocas. Will PM you when I have the final rummage.

As for the bacon thing, there seem to be plenty of "ham a chewers" around. Are they telling porkies?

[snohare]

I reckon that if you sifted soil down onto them, so that the stems were in their original positions but covered, would do fine. That's how I got my best crop; frost didn't get a look in, despite plenty of snow and icy cold days.
As far as porkies are concerned <finger waggles> it swine that does that, I think, but I don't intend to go the whole hog on this subject.
I'm off to bed. I'm smorrin' wi' the cauld, croakin' like a puddock and sneezing fit to greet ! A weekend spent outside rhodie bashing in gales at Inverewe did me no favours.

[veggiechicken]

A-soil sifting I will go on the morrow!
You must have caught some strange tongue twisting complaint during rhodie bashing as it's made you talk all funny!! Take care of yourself and wrap those ocas up nice and warm!

[planetologist]

can you tell me how deep the tubers are when grown in the soil please? I'm wondering whether I can plant small clusters of ocas amongst other plants in the garden and unearth the ocas without disturbing anything else. I don't have a conventional veg garden!!

They're not very deep at all, as I haven't earthed them up, though from the latest posts I think maybe I should. They got frosted in the last few days but aren't dead yet. If you want to try companion planting with oca, why not. Don't know how hardy the tubers are, and whether any tubers you'd miss would regrow. Seeing as you're in Whales, maybe drowning is more of an issue than freezing.

[veggiechicken]

Drowning is a big problem here tonight - its bucketing down outside! Do ocas float??
I'm getting more and more intrigued by ocas. They seem so adaptable. Next year I shall plant them in several different locations and see what suits them best. Just hope I like the taste when I eventually have one to eat!