Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

Oi my smart Beth,

Questions;

1. You got pix of Yacon?

2. How do you grow it? Sd or tuber?

3. Does it grow tropical?

4. No way I can grow Naranjilla here, rite?

Mucho gracias :ha:

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

1. For Yacon pix, no I don't have any. My crop failed in the rain so I'm waiting for it to clear up before I plant again. This was the situation all across the country this season, so it's not even at market. However, a GIS turns up these. The tubers superficially look like Yuca, and the plants look like stunted sunflowers.

2. You can go both ways. It's a bit longer from seed, not that that matters to us really, and you get fatter tubers through VP.

3. It absolutely grows tropical - there's no photoperiod to it. If you can grow sunflowers, you can grow Yacon.

4. I don't see why not. Again, no photoperiod, and the amount of water you get naturally should make them very very happy. Personally, I'd try for the areas where you see M. violascens growing (ie midlands, very wet areas, partial shade.) You'll have to monitor your plants, of course. They get grumpy about 35 C and above.

I grew them successfully in the Southern Ecuadorean desert with the proviso that I'd go and put ice cubes around the base of the stem on days where it got really hot (45-50 C in the sunshine was pretty common). They were in the shade of my nanners, which I think is what allowed them to grow at all. The heat stunted the plants a bit, but I still got golf-ball sized fruits off of them.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

[quote=lorax;69431] My crop failed in the rain so I'm waiting for it to clear up before I plant again. This was the situation all across the country this season, so it's not even at market.QUOTE]

Does it mean they can't take too much water from what you said above? Heck, it rains non stop here even though this is the driest part of the year.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

Lorax that is one big juicing naranjilla.Wow!
I'd like to have seeds of the ones with the two inch spikes. It's so hard to get good seeds here of the thorny ones. I saved seeds of mine and I'm growing them out and going to try to increase the thorns since most people prefer the thorny ones for ornamental purposes.
Paula, I didn't check this post for a long time or I would have told you that they seem to need quite a bit of water. They do ok here in Indiana in full sun though, if you keep them watered. I'm thinking of trying to grow one in my pond this year and see if they'll acclimate to full water.

Here's pictures of the yacon, I'm not really trying to promote my ebay ad, but I just happen to have pictures of it on there.

Live Plant! Yacon-Bolivian Sunroot,edible tuber unusual - eBay (item 190298464493 end time May-03-09 05:32:09 PDT)

We ended up getting 6 artichokes off the one plant we kept. I think we would have gotten more but I kept on letting it wilt down. We had some really dry weather and I had it in a really bad dry place.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

It's not that they can't take too much water. It's that my garden plot flooded out. (This was the case in most of the highland areas where it's grown as well. For some reason it doesn't respond well to being planted in terraces - so it can't be grown easily on steep hillsides - it ends up cultured in with corn and beans and tomatoes instead, and those plots all failed during the flooding.)

I can save some seeds from the thorny ones here, if you like. I'll trade you for roma tomatoes! PM me your mailing address, and I'll send them along once I've got them.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

Tog, here's the Naranjilla that grow at about 2 deg. South in a permanently wet, almost boggy area. These are the giant juicers.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

Sandy, I don't know what solanum I have , but they have spikes that hurt. They are still young but I think they are the long spikes. I will send you one of my seedlings if you pay postage ,or you can send me something in trade. I am not so great with the computer , But I have a pay pal account ,I had ordered some tomato plants from you last year, which grew as tall as my house. Let me know if you what one also I don't know how well they will travel .I got the seeds from rainseed.com A little expensive






You can't see the spikes, But they are there trust me.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

Lorax, Can you tell me when I can plant my solanum outside here in nj.
We usually plant tomato, peppers etc. and of course bananas around
the middle of may. But if I wait that long I think they will be hard to handle .
The spikes are starting to get hard . And hurt . Some of them are 22" tall now.
Thanks for all your help. Paula

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

When temps are consistently above 10C (50F) you're safe to put your Naranjilla out.

I'd advise wearing leather gloves to handle your plant - this way you'll still have hands, not hamburger, at the end of the day.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

Thank you sooooooooo much Lorax:woohoonaner: I can probably plant them at the end of April.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

Great, now I got more stuff to grow.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

They grow fast ,and a lot of fun to grow.

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

Here's a short article that appeared in the April edition of the local Hort. society newsletter:

Boy Do I Love Tomatoes!

Re: pepino, yacon, solanum, artichoke& tobacco
 

Hey Sandy, I have seed now!