More Mashua

Last winter I wrote (here) about the Mashua variety pilifera, and mentioned collecting its true seed. For whatever reason, that seed didn't germinated, but my post did result in a generous offer from Mybighair; wildling tubers seeded from his Ken Aslet, a day-length neutral form, arrived in the mail. Back in April I got tired of waiting for Spring, so between downpours, I planted the tubers in the cold, nutrient depleted mud, then retired indoors for the rest of the year, leaving the mashua to sink or swim. Literally.

Here is the resulting crop from "Son of Ken 1" lifted yesterday:

The four plants have all demonstrated fairly early tuberisation, acceptable flavour (to me), and exhibit varying degrees of the characteristic stripes of the parent. Diversity is good.

The fact they survived this year's hellish weather and waterlogged soil is not just good, it's amazing.

Some tubers are faciated, a condition which can result in larger, albeit strangely shaped tubers, and the genetic disturbance may sometimes be passed to the next generation, so I will replant next year. I don't pretend to understand what's going on with the genetics - I simply plant, observe, and select.

I grew "Son of Ken 1, 2, 3, & 4" right next to the Pilfera, hoping to collect seed from crossing, and I did see some flowers forming in early autumn, but if they survived long enough to be pollinated before being battered to the ground by rain or hail, they were probably ripped away by the regular gales we've suffered this year. So no seed.

Anyway, Pilifera cropped well again, though several young plants vanished during the so called spring, probably raided by desperate rabbits. Here are some of the best tubers from the surviving plants:

Mashua is said to be pest-free, but there is one significant exception; the plants suffered a massive attack from cabbage white caterpillars in August.

I picked about half a bucketful by hand, but the foliage was already badly stripped. Notwithstanding this, the plants made a good recovery. Perhaps Mashua would be a useful decoy crop alongside (or amongst) brassicas.

I've also noticed that many of the harvested tubers are spoiled by these strange brown fringed splits forming round the eyes. I'm guessing this could be caused by over-rapid swelling from high soil moisture levels i.e. growing in mud.

Possibly the staining is the concentration of chemical defences migrating to the vulnerable exposed surfaces.

Another observation is that the underground tubers are ignored, or perhaps more accurately avoided, by voles. There are voles aplenty here, and the oca are taking a bashing, but not a nibble on the Mashua. Maybe the voles are spoiled for choice with all the oca about, or perhaps they agree with a proportion folk who find the taste of mashua to be repulsive. I am not one of them, and when other crops fail, it seems there is mashua to eat.

Love it or loathe it, if you have tasted mashua, you can contribute to an edibility survey over at Radix.

Damn climate change! Next year: build windbreaks, dig drains, collect mashua seed. Wish I hadn't burnt those hydrocarbons now!

Mashua

Mashua 'Pilifera' has given me a very encouraging crop this year.

... unlike last year when I grew them 'properly' i.e. on their own. They struggled, probably because they were too exposed to strong sun, and weren't watered enough, but I did get some small tubers before the frost finished things.

This year I bi-cropped them with tall peas. 'Relay-cropping' is probably a more accurate term, as the crops overlapped rather than coincided in time.
My logic was to make shared use of the 7ft high pea supports, and for the Mashua to benefit from the shading and summer watering associated with the peas. After the pea crop was harvested, I just left the Mashua to climb through the dying stems for the remainder of the season, until killed by the frost.

This worked so well that I think I feel a few other Mashua-based polyculture schemes coming on...

Meanwhile here are some of the cleaned up tubers...

Notice that one tuber has resprouted — indicative of the recent mild weather, and demonstrating the plant's perennial intentions.
My single specimen of an unknown gold-coloured variety failed to survive the Summer, and has left no tubers. It's a pity, because I grew the two varieties through each other with the specific aim of facilitating cross-fertilisation.
That didn't work, but as at least the Pilifera has set some seed on its own.

Like Oca most Mashua clones are day-length sensitive, so growing from seed is potentially valuable in creating variation that may include earlier tuberisation.

What  I would like is to obtain the variety 'Ken Aslet' which flowers and crops earlier, and grow the two together with a view to crossing. Anyone got a couple of surplus KA tubers?

Well, if you don't ask, you don't get!

Early Frost Carnage

Drat the BBC weather forecast!
4ºC was the forecasted minimum last night.  I believed them, but they got it wrong. The Oca bed looks pretty well devastated.

Yacon leaves are blackened...

...or at least the outermost ones. Those lower down seem to have survived damage, and I think the plants will recover.










This bed of Ulluco has been flattened too.

The only Andean to be unaffected is the Mashua, which is nonchalantly preparing to flower.

This is a freakily early frost for this area, and the situation is all the more annoying because I have rolls of mesh ready-and-waiting to give protection.

At first sight all seemed lost. But when I carefully lifted up some of the slaughtered Oca foliage, the optimist in me could see less-damaged stems underneath. I think they may live. Fingers crossed.
More checking revealed that the Oca in the 'all-tuber polyculture mound' have been protected, albeit sacrificially, by the yacon foliage. Free-range Oca on 'the other plot' are also alive and well, protected by their close polyculture competitor/companions.

This scare got me thinking. If it had been one degree colder, and all the Oca were killed this early in the year, they probably would not tuberise, and I'd be left with no seed tubers for next year. If the cold snap were to be geographically widespread, it might be very hard to find replacements. Does anyone keep Oca tubers dormant in cool-storage as an insurance policy against this sort of situation?

Not me, but maybe I should.

Inky Oca Lands in London!

I've just received a sudden and unexpected surge of oca germplasm direct from darkest Peru!  Thanks to friend, Joel Carbonnel for giving me the pick from his box of mixed Andean tubers.
Pride of place must go to this almost-black oca.

It seems different to any of the other varieties I have; quite apart from the colour, the bulges below each eye are more defined and scale-like, and its overall proportion is longer.  The sprouts showing in the eyes are dark purple, and careful investigation with a scalpel reveals pale purple flesh.
Its rarity (or non-existence?) in these latitudes may be a sign that it will not tuberise well here, but even so, it could still be valuable as a breeding partner for the development of new varieties if it can be persuaded to flower.

The second tuber was nearly ignored, being a variety that I already have, but...

...then I noticed that one end was striped with a contrasting pale pink. If I discard the non-striped end, the remaining eyes should produce all-stripped tubers.

And finally this gold-coloured Mashua. I don't think it is a rare variety, but it's new to me, and next year I'll be trying it alongside the white variety that I have already.

The tubers will be seasonally confused, having just gone through winter in another hemisphere, and they are showing signs of sprouting. I need to get them into cool storage straight away where they can recover from their jet-lag before next spring. I know from experience that they should be tough enough to survive 'til then, as long as they don't get too dried out.