Oca

[robertb]

Anyone tried growing from seed? I haven't had much success growing it at all in the past, but that was probably down to waterlogging. I'm tying again this year, in a raised bed this time.

[philip]

I grew 56 oca varieties this year in order to compare productivity. Plants were grown in a field and only weeded once in june. The area had been covered with black plastic for a few months and then i rotivated it all with a tractor in april before planting. Plants were harvested in mid-november. Results ranged from practically nothing to 540 gramms per plant for the best variety. Average yield was maybe 300 gr per plant.
A big surprise was the fact that certain varieties that give top yields in other places year after year did very poorly and others that don't do well elsewhere yielded a lot. 
This indicates that performance varies according to soil, climate etc.. and people who say they tried oca and it didn't work should maybe grow several varieties before giving up on it.


I also purchased seed from Bill at Cultivariable and grew them along with a few of my own. I now have another 32 new seed-grown varieties to try next year if they all resprout cause some of the tubers are tiny.

I tried crossing flowers using Bill's method with no success at all.

I tried presoaking the seeds and then regularly check them and so on but this didn't work well for me. In future i will just surface-sow them on sterilised compost, keep it moist and hope for the best.
I think growing oca from seed every year and selecting the best strains is the way to go and it hopefully won't be too long before new varieties for europe and north america emerge.