Oca in a pot and in shade

Oca growing in a pot with some lathyrus tuberosus (earth nut pea) looked lovely during the summer and produced 401 g of tubers for a single plant.  What’s more they were packed into the pot like sardines and were all a good size.

When I ran out of obvious and sensible places to plant out the young oca plants last spring I resorted to less obvious and possibly less sensible places.  This included planting some in the shade alongside the garden decking (previously the shady home of nothing very much) with one plant at the end quite close to a hazel tree.  The picture below shows a mix of oca, scorzonera (spire at the back), herb Robert (growing up the fence), ferns, baby brassicas, clove pink, wild rocket, yellow pimpernel, wild violets, wild strawberry and the hazel tree at the back.  An apple tree is beside where the picture was taken and casts shade (as well as the fence), you can see evidence of it from the tiny fruits that had fallen to the ground.

The ground was not prepared in any way beforehand.  None of these oca plants were watered and only one received any additional fertility during the growing season.  The plant near the hazel tree had some mulch put round it from unwanted plants (otherwise known as weeds) removed from close by during the summer months.

I have harvested two plants – one from beside the decking produced 239 g of mainly small tubers.  The plant by the hazel produced an amazing 930 g!  Just beyond it I have piled up a lot of mulchy type materials when I ran out of other places to put them, so maybe it got its roots into that because it is so far easily the most productive plant.