Allotments 4 All

Just a quick question..is time now for sowing these?

Never heard of them, can you eat them.       ??? ??? ???

 ;D..apparantely so ;D New venture for me this year..so that as far as I can tell.
First one is some sort of tuber on climbing plant and second  ???..cucumber type ??? I'm still googling info ;D

I think I know about achocha - its a climbing thing that takes over the universe (in a friendly way). It produces pod things that are meant to taste like sweet peppers. My allotment neighbours asked me if I had monkeys, snakes and lions in there......

I thought it was fun but the pods (called something like bad baby achocha) werent that exciting/tasty really.....

Both need warm weather. Start achocha at the same time as courgettes. Jicama can be treated much like climbing French beans.

This is a friend's little girl with Achocha last year.

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I grew 2 Achocha plants up the side of my greenhouse and they completely covered it, even growing over the roof to the other side.  I found the things it produced to be quite nice in a stir fry but there were so many that it was impossible to eat them all.  I am going to grow it again this year because it looked so nice. :)

I got some achocha seeds from the Heritage Seed Libaray this year. Their advice is to sow under glass/on the windowsill in April/May and then either plant outside after all the frosts or pot on under glass. I also found this via google: http://coopette.com/blog/growing-achocha

Don't know the other one, sorry.

Will achocha grow up bare poles like beans, or does it need string wound round the way peas do?

Robert, mine started off by being tied onto bamboo canes but once it got going it clung to anything in its path!  It makes a fantastic screen of lovely leaves.

Thanks.

Goodlife,

Not sure if these will help.

http://www.howtodothings.com/home-garden/how-to-grow-achocha

http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-jicama-history-facts.html

Thanks for info dear Ladys and Gentlemen ;)
I've got all the info now and able to at least start once time is right.
What got me thinking about the starting time is some sites tell you they need long growing season..hence me wondering getting things going..
And my mind was saying "but if I start now how do keep the plants going untill summer"..temperature wise....and knowing some of you already grow these..
I've already have scaffolding trellis up for my kiwis and as those haven't used the space up yet I thought to crow something else on it too.. ;D

I grew achocca  'fat baby' last year - very productive but not a gourmet treat by any standard (don't worry - the spines are soft and edible).

Courgettes have more flavour - especially immature squash/pumpkin fruits.

The tiny baby (3cm) fruits are filled with jelly and unripe seeds - an acceptable cucumber substitute - but have a slight astringency (like raw courgette) so unlikely to impress kids - the only good use is for pickling. I don't know of any other recipes that use a lot of cooked cucumber!

Larger fruits hollow out like peppers but have virtually no taste - even less than supermarket peppers!

Only good use is in recipes where the texture and appearance of sweet pepper are more important - there is a good recipe that uses a strong cumin/tomato sauce and works OK but suffers from the fact that it is meant for red peppers.

Not quite famine food but somewhere in between - I will grow a plant every year as 'backup' for the cucumbers mainly (and impressive amounts of compostable foliage).

If you have lots of spare ground it's worth a try - you might like them but otherwise don't bother.

It's possible that the 'slipper shaped' spineless ones are better but they are apparently more fussy about temps - unless you are in Cornwall you will need a polytunnel with at least 100 cubic metres of space you don't need for something better.

Cheers.

Sliced and cooked cucumber is good in stirfries, which is how I plan to use achocha. It only needs about two minutes; just long enough to be heated through.

From a thread about Achocha last year, with some more photos.


http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,62405.0.html

From a thread about Achocha last year, with some more photos. Yes..I remember that ;D..the green greenhouse that is nowhere to be seen ;D

Quote from: goodlife on February 12, 2011, 20:15:20

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From a thread about Achocha last year, with some more photos. Yes..I remember that ;D..the green greenhouse that is nowhere to be seen ;D

Yes, it turned into a green cave.  ;)

I grow achocha, http://plantsalive.webs.com/apps/wiki/growing-achocha-fat-baby

I plant seed in April, it goes rampant

CjB

Thank you for that..one could not ask for better coverage of the subject ;D
If you can achive that 'up' in Yorkshire..I should not have no problems 'down' Nottinghamshire ;)

Quote from: goodlife on February 12, 2011, 21:00:13
Thank you for that..one could not ask for better coverage of the subject ;D
If you can achive that 'up' in Yorkshire..I should not have no problems 'down' Nottinghamshire ;)

LOL... you will not have trouble growing it "down" there. you will have trouble slowing it down.