Unusual Vegetables.

New for this year.

Every year I grow a few new crops (New to me anyway) mainly for the fun of it but also to investigate possible new crops that could be of asset to the household diet. New crops tend to be resistant to indiginous pest and disease problems, at least for a while, although the slugs still manage to have a go at most plants.

For this year there are a few oddities I am trying, some old English crops and other newer plants from accross the globe.

• Jicama (Pachyrhizus tuberosus)
• Chuffa (Cyperus esculentus)
• Chichiquelite Huckleberry
• Pink Banana (Musa velutina)
• Jap Minowase Daikon Radish
• Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana)
• Chia (Salvia columbariae)
• Kenaf Hibiscus (Hibiscus cannabinus)
• Quamash (Camassia quamash)
• Chinese artichoke (Stachys affinis)

Additionally, the following crops will continue to be grown on or experimented with further. Yacon and oca have proved to be worthwhile crops and will continue to be grown as part of the normal crop routine. These plants have been given their own dedicated pages now and any further developments will be added directly to their own pages.
Dedicated Yakon page.
Dedicated Oca page.

• Seakale
• This year's Ulluco progress. .. Dedicated Ullucus page.
• This year's Sweet potato progress. .. Dedicated Sweet potato page.
• Scorzonera
• Mangel worzel
• Quinoa
• Sorgum
• Amaranthus
• Casabanana or Melocoton
• Pawpaw
• Mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum)

During the season, this page will become a scrap book of the growing stages of these various plants prior to their inclusion in their own page if the interest warrants it.

Improving yields.

Growing something new is all well and good but part of the adventure is to find the most efficient method of producing a worthwhile crop. A quick Google will usually show how indigenous tribes grow crops on rocky mountain slopes but this is far from the heavy clay soil of a London allotment. Different soil, weather, tools, pests, temperatures and sunshine all have their effect on crop yields as does timings of sowing and harvesting, plant spacings, routine care etc.

Sowing or planting new crops can have the added pressure of expense. Often the new treasure costs a lot of hard earnt money so in the first season all possible care and protection is lavished on what is often a very hardy subject. Other times the cost may be zero but the item is rare and there may only be 2 or 3 seeds available in a swop. Each one has to germinate to count forcing a little bit of discipline on the grower.

In subsequent seasons the real testing begins as with larger amounts of stock and some knowledge of their requirements it becomes possible to experiment with different cultivation methods. Crop spacing is honed to suit the local growing conditions as once plant stocks are sufficient, yield per sq. metre is often more important than yield per plant. I do not have a mountainside at my disposal, just a couple of small plots so all of it has to produce all of the time with follow-on crops planted immediately after harvest.

Jicama (Pachyrhizus tuberosus)

 

Chuffa. (Cyperus esculentus).

Here's something interesting to try. The grass-like plants produce quantities of small tubers that may be eaten raw, cooked or processed into drinks or oil. Plants could possibly become invasive or decimated by wildlife. Nothing like a challenge.

As is usual with anything new, I like to start plants off in small pots to plant out later in the spring. In early February, the first batch is slowly emerging with the second batch recently sown.

 

Chichiquelite Huckleberry.

 

Pink Banana (Musa velutina).

 

Jap Minowase Daikon Radish.

 

Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana).

 

Chia (Salvia columbariae).

 

Kenaf Hibiscus (Hibiscus cannabinus).

 

Quamash (Camassia quamash).

After a very long wait for the weather to improve, bulbs appear to have survived the winter and are now emerging from the depths and growing well in early April.

Chinese artichoke (Stachys affinis)

Tubers on order.

 

Seakale.

This is a perennial plant that takes several years to mature. My seeds were sown in the polytunnel during the spring of 2008 and grown on outside in a deep tray. During August 08 the small plants were transplanted to individual deep boxes to overwinter. The reason for keeping them portable is simply that I am not yet in a position to commit the space for them long term.

Ullucus.

These plants are giving me a hard time and after two seasons of growing them I've still only managed to keep my seedstock. Trials will continue to try to find the key to success.

Sweet potato.

 

Scorzonera & Scorzonera.

Last year I experimented with an idea to grow the plants in plastic bottles pushed into the top of a ridge of soil. Bad weather over the Christmas period prevented any harvest until mid February. The resultant roots were not as long as I had hoped for but they did have reasonable diameter, and were easy to harvest.

Well, a result is a result but this is not quite good enough so things have to be done slightly differently this year. Constriction at the neck of the bottle caused most of the problems. I had envisaged that the roots would simply open up the split bottle but the reality was that the split simply saved the roots from being completely stuck. Maybe this year I will try bottles without splits and much wider holes at the bottom. The roots were easy to harvest without loss or damage so there is some merit in the method.

Page to be updated as crops mature.

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