Arracacha

I’m getting better at growing arracacha. We’ve gotten plants up to good size to provide a few meals this year. This is another plant that is difficult to get seed from, but I need seed in order to try for some varieties that grow better in our cool climate. Any experienced arracacha farmer would be embarrassed by the paltry roots on this plant, but it was enough for dinner for two and it was delicious!

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Hope you had something else on the menu…

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No kidding. A couple of those roots are the size of medium carrots, but not an impressive showing overall. I have done quite a bit better since then, but it takes 14 months.

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Looks very nice Bill :+1:! That’s a very long season required …

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I would be very interested in knowing the status of this project.

Was the Puerto Rico cultivar self sterile?

Can a plant be grown from a root as the ones sold in the supermarket?

I failed with arracacha. I gave it a good try and learned a lot, but it just isn’t a plant that I can make progress with. I would need access to more varieties to accomplish anything and it is really hard to get them.

The PR variety had very poor fertility and I suspect it is not self compatible. Unfortunately, the part that is sold is not usually capable of sprouting, but you might look for one that still has a little bit of crown attached.

Im sorry to hear that. I have tried growing supermarket arracachas with little success, many of them seem to have a predisposition for spoilage. I managed to get a few root hairs out of one before it rotted. They are one of the tasties root vegetables around.

I will double my efforts to get a growing shoot. I am certain I will get the Puerto Rico cultivar sooner or later.

Do you know more about the other varierty ‘zaytzuna’? Were the seeds produced a cross pollination from PR and Z cultivars? Did you pollinate by hand? Who was the seedbearer and please please tell me some of those offsprings are living cozy somewhere.

Fascinating work!