Plants will ship early June 🙂
Oca, Mixed Colors (Oxalis tuberosa) potted plant, organic
$9.50
Family: Oxalis (Oxalidaceae)
Hardy to Zones 6 to 12, otherwise grown as an annual, 180 days to tubers
Andean foodcrop rivalling potatoes in taste and exceeding them substantially in handsomeness. Highly nutritious tuber with brilliant colors that make a welcome change from the potato. Loaded with carbohydrate, calcium, iron and an excellent balance of amino acids. Plant prefers full sun to part shade, moist soils, and is best hilled up as it grows, to promote formation of the tubers. Requires 6 months from time of planting to time of harvest. After aerial portions reach full size it will take the plants another 3 months to mature their tubers. Cool but frost-free conditions are favored. Potted plants consist of the varicolored (mostly red or golden) tuber(s) in the pot and may be sold on the basis of a live tuber in a pot or on the basis of a plant, depending on growth cycle.
Potted Plant, Certified Organically Grown
Out of stock
Question
Bianca (verified owner) –
Hi again. Si you mean I can bury this part circled in red? No trellis then? Sorry to bother so much. It’s my first oca plant and I want to make sure it survives ☺️.
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Richo Cech –
no need for trellis, just let it drape. yes, the stems with nodes will root into the ground if you transplant the plant as advised and bury the stems just subsurface.
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bianca.echandy (verified owner) –
Thank you Richo.
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Question
Bianca Echandy (verified owner) –
Hi Richo. I recently received my oca plant. I gave them water once they arrived Inonly have to wait for transplant to a bigger pot. Do they need a trellis? Is it normal for leave to brown and fall off at this point? What size of pot can I use for it to stay permanently? Any recommendation for fertilizer? Does it grow more tubers using compost tea? Thank you.
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Richo Cech –
Hello Bianca,
Thanks for staying in touch. Your plant looks good and I recommend transplanting immediately to a 1-gallon or larger container. The stems can be surface-buried as they throw roots at the node. Just keep growing it on until it makes the perennial tuber. In the fall and winter it will want sun but not frost. you can give it fish emulsion or compost tea. richo
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Question
Amethyst Trotter (verified owner) –
What level of oxalic acid are these oca? The internet says there are sour and sweet cultivars with different preparation depending on oxalate concentration. It also says that oxalates are concentrated in the skin. Does that mean a peeled oca could be used with little to no preparation?
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Richo Cech –
Hi Amethyst,
We haven’t had our mixed cultivar analyzed for oxalic acid concentration although we have eaten the tubers like new potatoes and with relish. I don’t personally recommend eating raw oca–it would be in my mind like eating raw potato–you slice and steam them with the skin on and as you know cooking disarms the oxalates. I know my advice is part of what the “internet says” but I have a general take on what the internet says, which is that tons of people who have no practical experience are echoing the advice of other people who also have no practical experience. The best way to get practical experience is to obtain the plant and work with it.
Richo
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Question
Hayley –
Hi, how many tubers come in a packet?
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Richo Cech –
Hello Hayley, What we’re offering here is a potted plant, not a seed packet. Actually we’re ion a good position with our OCA plants this year, as they are many and healthy. An OCA plant has the potential to produce many tubers. I invite you to purchase in order to reserve for spring shipment. Richo
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blick002 (verified owner) –
Healthy seedlings arrived last spring, but I made the mistake of planting them in the greenhouse (reasonable for zone 6-12 plants?) and watched them struggle all summer until late summer/early fall when they took off and started growing like crazy in the cooler conditions. They have continued to grow in the “winter greenhouse” (ave night temp 40C) and started producing tubers in late December. I plan to plant them in tubs outside in 2020, hoping they enjoy the cooler zone 3 summer temps, and will bring them in the greenhouse before frost.
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mary –
Update: Starting from 2 plants grown in a large tub in a Zone 3 winter greenhouse in 2019, these have spread to 10 tubs other tubs in three years, and are now producing 100s of tubers. Plants die back in the winter, the unharvested tubers remain in the tubs in the 33-40F greenhouse over the winter and sprout religiously in the spring. They are currently the “understory” for the summer crop of peppers planted in the same tub and both seem content with that arrangement. They seem to be thriving in the greenhouse and I haven’t felt the need to plant them outside.
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