I have a confession to make. I no longer rush out every morning to scan the oca (Oxalis tuberosa) patch for pods. In fact, I often let a week go by without looking at them. What a difference a couple of months makes! Back in July, I was checking them twice a day, pollinating by […]
The 62 new oca (Oxalis tuberosa) plants that grew from this year’s seeds continue to surprise me with their huge difference in growth rates. Unfortunately, it seems that about 55 of them will be destined for the compost pile, as they are not putting on much growth and will certainly not reach the size necessary […]
It was only seven weeks ago that I posted about what then seemed a significant achievement: the collection of 1,000 oca (Oxalis tuberosa) seeds. This week, I passed 10,000. My better (and funnier) half frequently teases me because I said at the beginning of the year that I would be satisfied if I got just […]
These are the instructions that I am sending out with packets of oca (Oxalis tuberosa) seed. These instructions reflect the techniques that have worked for me so far, but I am sure that there is room for improvement. If you find a procedure that works better, please let me know. Oca seed does not appear […]
We spent a few hours collecting oca (Oxalis tuberosa) cuttings with maturing pods today – about 250 in total. That should translate into a lot of seed. With more than 4000 seeds as of today, it is tempting to get lazy and let these open pollinated pods go, but there is no guarantee that we’ll […]
We’re up to 23 oca (Oxalis tuberosa) seedlings from my early August sowing of 60 seeds. The earliest are now putting out true leaves and starting to look like proper oca plants. As is usually the case with seedlings, growth has picked up considerably since they formed true leaves. We’re a month away from the […]
On August 7th, I started a quick and dirty experiment to see if any of my oca (Oxalis tuberosa) seeds would germinate. Most seeds have some dormancy and won’t grow until time has passed or specific conditions of temperature and humidity are reached. I separated 60 seeds into three groups of 20. I soaked each […]
Six to eight inch cuttings are just right I wrote a couple weeks ago that I was going to try a few experiments to determine how to harvest the most oca (Oxalis tuberosa) seeds with the lowest losses (the two kind of go hand in hand). The verdict is in: indoor cuttings have provided significantly […]
Today, my oca (Oxalis tuberosa) seed count stands at 1,022 for the year, which means that I have achieved my goal, with three or possibly four months left before the first frost. I have 123 pods maturing on cuttings indoors, which should yield about 900 more seeds by the averages and more than that bagged […]
I’ve had pretty good luck this year getting oca (Oxalis tuberosa) to flower and set seed. I’m growing enough plants to start to perceive some patterns regarding flowering. This information may be helpful to prospective oca breeders, but could also be misleading, based on such a limited period of time. Climate I have not grown […]