Yacon (Polymnia edulis/Smallanthus sonchifolius) also gives higher yields when grown on inside until the end of the year in a large pot; however, it is much less day length sensitive than ulluco and oca…when I had a cold greenhouse, yacon would give at least as good a yield as this by October…
The sweet tasting tubers are becoming quite popular in recent years! Yacon is in the Asteraceae, the roots containing inulin like its edible tubered cousins Jerusalem artichoke and Dahlia.
The yacon was moved into my living room which is heated…about 2/3 of the leaves froze off before harvest, but it resprouted from the base and continued flowering….
The propagules were sprouting (small nodules used to start next year’s plants)
As the psychedelic (colour not effect) Andean tubers Oca (Oxalis tuberosa), Ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus) and Achira (Canna edulis) benefit from a longer season than I can give them outside, I grow them in buckets which I bring inside and harvest around Xmas time for a colourful christmas dinner…so here’s an album of this year’s harvest!
I was very surprised by one of the best ulluco harvests here, despite the leaves being mostly frozen off before moving the pots inside and not regrowing…I don’t understand…
Each of the groups correspond to one bucket! The yellow tubers at 2 o’clock are from a bucket grown for two years to see if they would grow any bigger…otherwise yellow has the smallest tubers.
I’ve never grown anything like this size of ulluco before, similarly the white with pink dots variety were significantly bigger than normal…strange as all my Ullucos were severely frosted before I brought them inside and didn’t regrow inside…
A lot of variation in yield again this year in my ocas, here are 7 groups corresponding to 7 buckets…the large yellow at bottom right looked very promising but there were only two tubers :( The two groups at bottom left and centre were mixed varieties forced for the leaves last winter and then left to grow on…
For my daughter Avellana Wood who has been working hard around the house the last few days!
Tipping the bucket upside down, the tubers are revealed :)
I gave up sugar poison completely over 10 years ago, apart from the once a year suck on my living room sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) :) This is a hardy cultivar from Raglan in New Zealand although I grow it indoors all year!
