As it is now late August I'm curious to know how the more exotic vegetables are coping with this chaotic weather. Among the oddies that I have growing this year are sweet potatoes, oca, ullucus, banana, exploding cucumbers and dhudi.
The bananas have established themselves ok but are not growing very well at all producing one new leaf every 2-3 weeks instead of one every 5-7 days like last year. I'm not even going to bother with a photo until they are taller than the cardoons.
The Dhudi which is a cucurbit somewhere between a gourd, squash, courgette and would be a rampant climber in a decent summer, and while mine are flowering well, the fruits grow a little bit then atrophy and die off. Maybe I am not getting the pollination or maybe it is just too cold for them.
(http://www.david-frary.com/images/dhudi-aug.jpg)
The exploding cucumbers are doing well and growing vigorously after a slow start but with only 8 seeds to start with and the fruit being small there is never enough at one time for a panfull. These are more of a novelty garnish rather than a staple but maybe with a few more plants they could be productive. Unaffected by pests or the weather.
(http://www.david-frary.com/images/cyclanthera_explodens_3.jpg)
Sweet potato's have spent most of the summer lazing about but in the past few weeks they have put on a spurt of growth and look healthy. Whether they produce anything to justify all the trouble starting them off remains to be seen.
(http://www.david-frary.com/images/sweet-potato_aug.jpg)
Now for the Oca and Ullucus. These are the ones we are all waiting to see how they perform and at the moment I have to say that the Oka has grown very well although I was worried a while back when the base of the stems turned brown letting the top flop down. This may be normal and the plants still keep growing with many new basal shoots appearing all the time. Slugs leave this plant alone so I may be on a winner at last.
Ullucus has proved slightly more delicate and prone to slug damage but otherwise seem healthy enough. There is still about ten weeks growing time left for these last two items before any harvest can be assessed but I'm getting excited.
(http://www.david-frary.com/images/oca-aug.jpg) (http://www.david-frary.com/images/oca-ullucus-aug.jpg)
Left photo is red Oca. Right photo is the Ullucus with Oca in the foreground.
My sweet potatoes are nice and bushy, climbing up canes and flowering. It's my first attempt, and I am having to resist scraping earth away to see what is happening below ground. I've tried the little round cucumbers this year (Crystal Apple or something?) and am very pleased with the taste and texture of the few fruits I've tried, but I expected many more. I haven't even heard of most of yours.... My other experiment is the Greek butter beans, gigandes, which have shot up their poles to eight feet, flower profusely, and produce many short fat green pods which are rather like runner beans. Time will tell if they dry out and produce the butter beans.
I'm pleased to hear your Oca is floppy too... thought it was just mine... have mine in the big greenhouse with the sweet potato, mainly to ensure a longer season, way too early to be thinking about tubers yet!
;D
The only exotic type I'm growing this year is sweet potatoes and they are looking quite healthy. However a few plants were planted a bit later than others and they stayed small. I'm not expecting anything from the small plants. If I get any tuber from big plants then I'm happy. :)
May I ask a question? Mine are growing outdoors without protection. When should I dig them up? They were planted around the end of May.
My white oca are doing well, haven't noticed any flopping, but then I haven't looked that carefully, have just been letting them get on with it.
I tried growing lablab beans this year but I think the cold has got the better of the one plant I managed to germinate as it isn't doing much at all.
SP x
Leave them in as long as possible Tora.. they are day length sensitive, so only start producing tubers as the nights draw in... As late in October as you dare.. they will visibly stop growing by the end of sept as the night temps fall. Not sure how frost sensitive the tubers are but the tops will die off with a frost...
:-\
Thanks saddad. ;) I might put a fleece on them when it gets really cold. :)
Don't forget that even if you don't get any tubers on the sweet potatoes, you can still eat the leaves!
Where can I buy Ullucus and Oca? My pinto beans are growing reasonably well in my high cold frame.
sweet potatoes rotted into the ground!!
Got my Oca from "Real seeds"...
Ulluca I don't know...
How would you serve Sweet Potato leaves? Like Spinach or like Vine leaves??
???
Sorry to hear that Cambs
:'(
sweet potatoes in the brick greenhouse going great guns, but squeezed in to small space, so not sure what I'll get. Ones outside I think are in the wrong place (shaded by the greenhouse), tops are growing OK, but I don't know what I'll get - Cambourne you've got me worried now ...
Temptation melon produced two melons, but the plant had it's last gasp at the weekend. The cantelope melon looks really healthy and has 4 babies, one quite sizeable. Edonis appears to have JUST woken from a long sleep ::) never mind.
Yin Yang beans look GREAT !!! Can't wait for them to be ready ... err, does anyone know when that might be ? Also, because they are kidney beans can they be eaten raw ??
Think that's all I've got.
sweet potatoes in the poly, one type are like a bush, the other is like a vine..all seem to have picked up in the last couple of weeks..lemongrass is doing great, melons :(..barlottos, first time are going great guns, I like the way they can be left to their own devices ;D
piccy is the lemongrass ;D
Is that a yellowing Aubergine in the foreground manics? Mine always go like that.. am I doing anything wrong?
???
the fruit is forming ok, we're just feeding them with a high potash feed like the toms, maybe it's 'cos it's in a pot ?
I have Fat Baby Achocha, the cousin of Eristic's exploding cucumbers, and after a similar slow start, they've romped away. They're now over 8 ft high and starting to spread along the top of the nearby hedge. Not many fruits yet, but they're coming along. They look like the exploding cucs too, except all the 'spines' face the same way. Aubs full of flowers, some fruit forming, so still hopeful of some ratatouille before Christmas.
The banana passionfruit is an absolute THUG, laden with flowers and fruit, the first of which is slowly starting to ripen. Late flowers on the kiwi so probably no fruit this year. Grapes have been hit by some serious mildew - or as I call it (ahem!) flavour enhancer!
Oh, and my kahili ginger is just putting up a flower spike! Yippee!
I'm not expecting too much from my sweet potatoes/kumara as the weather hasn't really been suitable. Plus while on holiday the bind weed invaded in force and it's really hard to work out which is which....though the kumara leaves are purple tinged but it's intermingled it's hard to sort out.
I wish everything else grew as well as the bind weed.
Treat sweet potato leaves like spinach. Namissa cooks them into what might loosely be called stews; it's a bit of a Sierra Leonean specialty.
Quote from: manicscousers on August 21, 2007, 21:49:48
the fruit is forming ok, we're just feeding them with a high potash feed like the toms, maybe it's 'cos it's in a pot ?
On
Tomatoes, RHS says too much high potassium feed can cause magnesium deficiency - hence yellowing / light spots. Perhaps same for Aubergines?
I am soooooo confused now. Are you all talking about sweet potatoes or kumara? I put some kumara in a big tub earlier in the year and it has now got loads of leaf growth (vine-like). Can someone tell me when it starts to die down? Is it like mentioned by Saddad, in October?
Twinkletoes
I thought kumara was a a sweet potato (from NZ)?
Spot on Barnowl. You can get them from time to time in some Sainsbury's stores. The flesh is not orange like sweet potato and is delicious roasted. I thought I would try and grow some and put a potato that had loads of roots growing, into the tub of compost. Haven't a clue when it will be ready.
Twinkletoes