Oca, Oxalis tuberosa
Now I couldn’t wait any longer. I just had to dig into the ground under my oca plants.
This year, several of the tubers have a reasonable size.
Other years they have been too small. There are still many small tubers, so I dug up one plant and let the other two remain in the soil. Since frost and snow can come any day (or maybe only in a month), I chose to cover them with several layers of bubble wrap hold down by wood. The leaves have died from frost long ago, but many of the thick succulent stems are still fresh, and they can quietly nourish the tubers to grow significantly. I want to see how long I can wait to harvest the last two plants. Now that I have dug up enough to put oca again next year, I dare let the time go before I harvest the rest. There seems to be a chance to taste them this year.
Had to use a flash, as it is dark now after work. These dark-dark afternoons are typical of advent and Christmas.
November 30, 2011 at 19:16
I’ve been looking for these for a whil; do you have enough to consider a trade? PLease give me an email if so.
December 2, 2011 at 17:57
Personally, I have never attempted to grow ocas because I don’t particularly care for their flavor. However, a good friend of mine grows them quite successfully to enormous sizes of about 2 feet in length.
December 10, 2011 at 10:39
2 feet length oca?? Wow!
December 18, 2011 at 18:31
2 whole feet? I’m considering growing oca again!
December 18, 2011 at 19:48
Hanna, could you please ask your friend how to grow the large oca?
I really would like to learn the trick!
December 26, 2011 at 22:11
Thanks for the greetings, Soren. We sat outside on the lawn for Christmas lunch…. one of the advantages of a summer Christmas.
I grew oca for the first time last year and had a nice crop. The size varied a lot but big is not always better!
Happy New Year for 2012.
December 26, 2011 at 22:16
Thanks Kate.
And of course you are right, big can also be unpalatable. Is that so in oca?
December 31, 2011 at 00:30
Wow, it’s 15 degrees F here in Connecticut in the US; and I found your blog
while looking for pictures of artichoke flowers. What a lovely treat. I’ve been reading every page to my husband while lying under throws with our dogs and drinking a nice glass of red wine. I loved reading about vegetables and flowers that I’d never seen before. I am so jealous that you can grown artichokes in Denmark. We cannot grow them as it gets too cold here.
I hope I dont loose your address as I want to keep reading about your gardening adventures.
Keep warm this winter, Pate and Andrew Garson (Pate & Andy)
PJPINTOR@AOL.COM
December 31, 2011 at 17:23
Hello Pate and Andy.
You can grow artichokes as annuals, if you pick the right cultivars. I actually found a “How to …” for you, specific for Connecticut:
http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/publications/fact_sheets/forestry_and_horticulture/how_to_grow_globe_artichokes_in_connecticut.pdf
You might even be able to grow perennial artichokes, if you mulch them heavy enough, and still provide them the necessary air to breathe.
The cultivars I grow have been developed over centuries by generations of garden people. I think their hardiness comes from an ability to regrow from the deep root, when the growing point have frozen to death.
January 10, 2012 at 15:21
Great looking red oca there!
I am enjoying growing this crop!
🙂
January 10, 2012 at 19:42
From Western Oregon: nice looking tuber. Harvesting is tricky since they grow larger as days grow shorter and colder. Reputedly they are nearly as productive as potatoes but we haven’t achieved that level. Attractive tubers that I find quite palatable but have never seen one even close to two feet.
January 18, 2012 at 21:16
I’ve never come across oca before. It’s interesting to see that seed saving is important in Denmark too. Here in Britain we have a growing interest in heritage varieties and seed collecting. We have seed swaps called Seedy Sundays. Do you have anything similar there?
January 18, 2012 at 22:22
OK. I give up on dreaming for to feet oca 🙂
We will do our first public national seedy Saturday on 17th. of March. We also invited speakers from Norway and Sweden, and part of the program will be in English, to appeal to those who are not familiar with Scandinavian languages. Formerly we have exchanges seeds whenever we met, and sold seeds to the public occasionally at markets. For our members we have a spring and an autumn exchange list. We are familiar with the Heritage Seed Library, some of our heirlooms have been repatriated from there.
January 29, 2012 at 23:00
Impressive that you can get any tubers at all, in Denmark. They’re supposed to be a long season crop.
I tried to get oca tubers last year… company was out of stock. Expect to try again this year, maybe try a little sooner… Procrastinator that I am, not especially likely…
How did the crop taste?
Do you have any pictures of the growing plants?
How about the flowers? Would they look good in a perennial border?
February 1, 2012 at 11:32
– They taste like crunchy, lemony potatoes
– Pictures. Not mine. See http://oca-testbed.blogspot.com/
– Flowers. Also see oca-testbed, but no, they’re not going to look good in a perennial border.
Grow it for the tubers. Good for Diabetics, as the starch content is low. Blight free, but wire-worms and rodents seem to like it as much as I do!
Don’t make a mistake. Oca is a rapacious invader and smotherer. I was picking it out of my 2010 bed throughout 2011, where it’s become a terrible weed.
For 2012 I’m going to plant it in big buckets, 1.5 metres across, placed on a concrete apron to try to keep it under control. It seeds freely and if you don’t harvest every tuber it’s back!
February 1, 2012 at 20:24
I mostly agree with Michael, except that I never had a flower on my oca.
Also I never had a volunteer. Nothing invasive up here.
But I find the leaves very beautiful, and they cover the ground where they grow, thus preventing weeds mid and late in the season. I can see it as a good companion plant for taller growing vegetables.
February 2, 2012 at 16:16
@skrubtudsen
2011 I grew as “4 Sisters”, Sweetcorn/Tomato as Support, Oca as groundcover, Borage as Pollinator Attraction and Climbing Pea as Nitrogen Fixer.
Oca, as you say, covers the ground and obliterated the weeds. It even kept the borage under some kind of control. When the Toms got the blight, the Oca stayed healthy.
They flowered from late August through to late September in both 2010 & 2011. I know I had volunteers from 2010, because most of the Oca i pulled up as weeds didn’t have a tuber attached.
I and most of my neighbours at the allotment are fascinated by the foliage. Is it a clover? Do the plants & their leaves actively track the sun? Why do the leaves fold before & after rain? Why don’t they all open during the rain?
Bubble-wrap as blanket for plants is a good idea, just I’m too addicted to popping it to “waste it” on the garden!!
🙂
February 17, 2012 at 21:15
Good questions Michael!
I don’t have the answers.