[Steveharford]

Well, 3 weeks after the tops were frosted, so I eagerly dug up my first oca plant, then another, then another. After 6 plants I got 7 tubers, all smaller than the ones I planted. What went wrong?

[sunshineband]

When did you plant them Steve?

[Steveharford]

I will get back to you on that one when I have dug out my diary. Pretty sure they weren't late though. And there was a lot of top growth and flowers. I would post a pic of my 'harvest' but it's too embarrassing ! 😐

[surbie100]

Sorry to hear that - I've just started digging mine out, and there are a lot of tiddlers, but enough of a reasonable size. Planting them out late shouldn't make that much difference to yield according to Ian Pearson's trials on the oca testbed site. Could mice have been digging them out?

[sunshineband]

That was my next question, Surbie ---mice? I have one area which has cropped poorly this year and I think that voles or mice are the culprits, or even rats, sadly 

[Nikkithefoot]

The first year I grew Oca I had a poor crop,but I had just taken over the plot and the ground obviously was starving.
This year after a few years of good manuring I tried again and ended up with an average of 900g tubers per plant. Mind you from frosting to digging the first was 5 weeks, and the subsequent harvests got bigger. I'm thinking the longer you leave them the better the final crop, notwithstanding mice etc

[Steveharford]

Yes its quite possibly mice. Especially as there are just no tiddlers at all. Very disappointing. I might just be able to harvest enough to have a go again next year. I would like to taste one for the first time though.

[Markw]

This was my third year in growing them and I had a very small crop this year, I gave some to my friend and he had a bumper crop. I also had a lot of top growth but very few oca unlike other years. I can only put this down to over feeding or to rich a soil.
Unlike my Yacon which was a bumper crop 8kg per plant.
These little things always happen