Oca

[tai haku]

Was browsing real seeds website this afternoon and was intrigued by their sold-out selection of Oca. Looks well worth a try and I was wondering if anyone had tried it, seen it elsewhere, tasted, thought it looked interesting, etc etc

[Paulottie]

No never heard of it, okra yep, but I enjoyed your blog- i've got one of those shells!

[Nicos]

Hello there Tai Haku- and welcome to the Vine!!!

I'd never heard of oca- so I've googled it to save other people time!!!!

www.greenharvest.com.au/Plants/oca_info.html

It looks to me a bit like a purple anya potato!!!!
I like to have one veg each year which I've never tried before- and this one looks well worth a go!

Maybe you can introduce us to other veg we don't see round here??

Glad to have your imput on the Vine!

[tai haku]

Hello there Tai Haku- and welcome to the Vine!!!

I'd never heard of oca- so I've googled it to save other people time!!!!

www.greenharvest.com.au/Plants/oca_info.html

Thanks for the link OCA, seems to be the initials of various associations which makes googling a bit trickier.

Maybe you can introduce us to other veg we don't see round here??

Glad to have your imput on the Vine!

I'll try! This is just something I saw in the real seeds catalogue so I'm as unclear on it as everyone else. Very few people garden for food proactively here so we don't really have interesting varieties of veg but then everyone has coconuts, mangos, breadfruit or citrus in their gardens!

[muckdiva]

I'm growing a few this year - I've no idea how well they will do, and there are differing opinions on how good the tubers taste. There was a bit written about them in the Heligan Vegetable Bible book, which says the taste is acceptable if the tubers are left out in the sun, which makes them taste sweeter. I got my tubers from the Real Seed Catalogue, their descriptions are so tempting, I decided to give it a go. Hopefully I can give some more helpful feedback at the end of the year

[King Carrot]

I'm growing a few this year - I've no idea how well they will do, and there are differing opinions on how good the tubers taste. There was a bit written about them in the Heligan Vegetable Bible book, which says the taste is acceptable if the tubers are left out in the sun, which makes them taste sweeter. I got my tubers from the Real Seed Catalogue, their descriptions are so tempting, I decided to give it a go. Hopefully I can give some more helpful feedback at the end of the year

what he said planted at the weekend, will report any results

[tai haku]

Cool - it sounds like that catalogue entry interested a few people. I'll look forward to hearing the results.

[fluffymuppet]

I saw Oca growing in the RISC garden yesterday and the garden co-ordinator loved them. He said they were very lemony in taste and that there was some interest in creating improved varieties because they don't suffer from blight like potatoes do.

[bugs]

We're trying them too this year - again, tempted by the Real Seeds people's descriptions! Ours seemed to start sprouting rather early so we potted them up and now have I think 10 plants, between 6 and 12 inches high, in pots up to 6inches - we've lifted them out of the pots to check they're not root bound but they seem OK so far so we won't plant them on until we're sure there won't be a frost as I understand they're similarly tender as potatoes (which we're also doing in pots only this year). I gather they don't start to form tubers until very late in the year, as well. So far they are very healthy attractive looking plants with the typical oxalis "clover" shaped leaves but sturdy plump stems. May have a picture somewhere if anyone's interested.