right - oca ordered

[bikermike]

From Garden Organics catalogue. 5 of yellow, 5 of white.

Got a raised bed I'm going to grow them in (2.7x1.6)

any experiences/tips/suggestions?

Does anybody know what they do to the soil (the lucky things are going in where I had peas and beans last year...)

[TrixC]

You need to harvest them really late - wait until the foliage to be totally killed by frost. And control slugs. I like the taste (grew up eating them in NZ where they’re known as yams)but I’ve given up growing them as they don’t like my heavy clay soil. A raised bed would be a good idea, and preferably a sandy loamy soil.

[bikermike]

hmmm, don't like clay soil? oh dear...

Oh well, I'll put some compost down and hope.

as for slugs... oh well...

Thanks for the input, we shall see how they go.
(do they taste alright?)

[TrixC]

I really like the flavour - a bit like a lemony potato, with a bit of sweetness. In NZ we mainly eat them roasted, like potatoes.

I hadn’t spotted from your profile that you’re a fellow Londoner, I guess you have the same soil as me. If you’re growing in a raised bed won’t you be filling it with topsoil?

[sparrow100]

Treat them like potatoes. Ones you harvest by hammering them out of the soil 2 weeks after the killing frost.

I grow them in manure-augmented clay soil in London. If the soil is nice and rich and you stick them in earlyish (May time) you get lovely big tubers 3-4inches long. Don't stint the watering in summer and invest in nematodes or other means of slug killing as otherwise your best tubers might have occupants. You can eat the foliage too - it's sharp and sorrel-like.

[bikermike]

My raised beds are more sunk paths tbh, sloping plot, dug down to the clay for the paths (about a spade's depth) and then piled up in beds. I've mulched with woodchip over last year mainly for water retention, but I'll add some compost before they go in.

nematodes will be done anyway, they seem to work really well in my patch.

p.s. interesting re foliage - all good.

How big do yours grow - the catalogue says because of their "bushy habits" plant them 90cm apart, which seems excessive...

[sparrow100]

If I manage to put them in early enough the foliage gets pretty big. There are pics for comparison of 3 months' worth of growth on a post I wrote here: https://mudandgluts.com/unusual-crops/oca/

Usually mine get 30-45cm distance between them.

[bikermike]

ooh - interesting!
(I can't look at the pics at work, but I'll look forward to looking at them tonight)

thanks

Mike

[bikermike]

Well, they've been delivered...

the red ones are rotten... Waiting for a response from Dobies/GO/whatever.
White ones look OK, albeit rather more sprouty than I hoped - best get them in pots next weekend.

They are a lot smaller than I imagined too...

[bikermike]

Well, fair play to Dobies, I had the promised parcel yesterday. with *two* packets of red oca to replace the one that was mouldy... I really hope we like the stuff...