Potatoes, yacon, oca, and other root crops

[JCorte]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share my favorite source for root crops from a breeder in Washington.  He just made items available for pre-order for next season.

Cultivariable.com

He specializes in Andean potatoes, yacon, oca, mashua, and ulluco.
I’ve also ordered perennial sea kale and dwarf Jerusalem artichokes.
I love his potatoes.

Janet

[Forester]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share my favorite source for root crops from a breeder in Washington.  He just made items available for pre-order for next season.

Cultivariable.com

He specializes in Andean potatoes, yacon, oca, mashua, and ulluco.
I’ve also ordered perennial sea kale and dwarf Jerusalem artichokes.
I love his potatoes.

Janet

Hell, I've been looking for this for a long time. Thank you Janet!

[strom]

WOW!

[TomekK]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share my favorite source for root crops from a breeder in Washington.  He just made items available for pre-order for next season.

Cultivariable.com

He specializes in Andean potatoes, yacon, oca, mashua, and ulluco.
I’ve also ordered perennial sea kale and dwarf Jerusalem artichokes.
I love his potatoes.

Janet

Found him this year, ordered oca and mashua. Incredible prices for these, and they came bigger/better than excpected and packed well. Also, his breeding work is incredible, and he might be the only easily accessible breeder of these Andean crops (including potatoes!) in the U.S.

Highly recommended!

[josianecanadian]

spammer

[pagnr]

Thanks for re bumping this topic, I missed it last time. Wow, some great stuff on that site.

[JCorte]

Josianecanadian,
Love that your sons are helping in the vegetable garden.  By 'perennial seaweed' do you mean the perennial sea kale (crambe maritima)?  This is a great perennial that I blanch during winter like Belgian endive.  I grow them in 3 gallon pots and let them get large during summer then cut back.  You can eat the summer grown leaves cooked like regular kale.  For tender blanched winter greens that are a beautiful pale yellow or lavender depending on variety, I cover the top of the pot with a 3 gallon black fabric grow pot that fits over the pot you are growing in.  This excludes light so the new leaves don't develop chlorophyll.  They make great salad 'greens' blanched this way and you don't have dig up roots and force indoors in the dark like chicories.  Wish I had a picture to show you, the wavy leaves with light pink/ lavender colors are beautiful.

Pagnr,
Glad you found the site.  I hope more people will support his breeding work.  I don't know of anyone else developing potatoes like him. 

Janet

[JCorte]

https://www.cultivariable.com/catalog/potato/potato-varieties/
Check out the home page for all the other items he sells, really impressive selections.

Pics of some of the potatoes

[pagnr]

I am growing these at the moment, New Zealand Kidney Potato. Blue Skin white flesh with a few purple streaks.
Might be good to grow from seed to get more tinted flesh ?
https://www.thelostseed.com.au/new-zealand-kidney-1kg-not-certified-eating-potato

[JCorte]

Pagnr, the kidney potatoes look good.  For purple/blue flesh, I like purple majesty.  I don’t like the skin on it though, so it’s best to peel it especially if you are using in a recipe for boiled potatoes.  I like that it grows easily in a fabric grow bag.

Pic of purple majesty and other potatoes grown in containers.


Janet

[pagnr]

In Australia we have Purple Congo and Walhalla, both full blue purple kidney types. I am also growing Purple Bliss which is a newer version of above.  Also growing in containers but the shoots seem a bit tall and leggy.

[cassowary]

Anyone have advice for growing S. tuberosa (potato) in a wet tropical climate?

I love the Peruvian Amarillo, very small yellow potatoes what are just super fluffy!

[pagnr]

I haven't seen Peruvian Amarillo for a while, maybe 5 years. Is it still available up there ?

Do you have much of a winter dry season where you are Cassowary ? Maybe growing in containers ?

[JCorte]

Cassowary,

Nemah potato is a papa amarilla type and my favorite potato to grow.  I've trialed dozens of varieties and this has been the best grower for me in containers as well as being my favorite for taste and cooking.   Potatoes are small and have a great texture, unlike any other potato I've tried.  They are so good fried whole with salt and the skin on them are great even boiled.

Not sure how they will do in your growing conditions, but they are quick to form tubers and right now they are the only ones growing during my cold wet winter in ground in Fallbrook.  I usually grow them in 10 gallon fabric pots in my home garden in Laguna Beach.

These potatoes are one of my favorite food plants to grow and will always be in my garden.

I plant from tubers but you can order seeds directly from the breeder here. 
https://www.cultivariable.com/product/potato/potato-varieties/potato-nemah/

Janet