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Old 01-06-2020, 06:43 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Nick Maclaren[_5_] Nick Maclaren[_5_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Oct 2015
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Default Any one actually tried eating the tubers of Bomarea edulis?

In article ,
Charlie Pridham wrote:

You dont need a greenhouse for the Bomarea its perfectly hardy (well the
tubers below the frost line are)


My experience of such plants is that they survive only the mildest
and driest of winters - which is an unusual combination! If only a
small part of a tuber is frosted, the whole tuber usually rots.
Cambridge is a lot colder than anywhere in Cornwall (even Brown Willy),
so you might be able to.

I have grown several of them, and here is a summary:

Oca - apparently, it enlarges its tubers when the weather gets cool
(but stays well above freezing) and the nights lengthen - well, that
doesn't happen for me, so I got lots of little tubers. They taste
nice, like an acidic potato.

Ulloco - well, for me, it did damn all and I didn't even get ONE
tuber out of 5 apparently healthy plants!

Yacon - a success, sort of - it grew well, and produced large (Kg +)
tubers, which were crisp and sweetish and would make a very good
addition to summer salads, but it didn't crop until autumn.

Mashua (Trop. tuber.) - pleasantly spicy, produced only small tubers
(but I did not give it a good spot), and seriously frost-tender.

Crosne - grew well, straggled as badly as oca, and produced a zillion
nice and crunchy small tubers, which overwintered and grew (including
as weeds) - but was a real pain to prepare.

And possibly others I have forgotten.

I have grown quite a lot of other exotic (non-tuberous) vegetables,
and am still doing so. Few are worth continuing with.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.