Re: [gardeners] Growing jicama from the store?
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 14 Jan 1999 13:08:15 -0600
Kay Lancaster wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, George Shirley wrote:
>
> >
> > > But it's
> > > occurred to me that those of us without 370-day growing seasons would have
> > > a better chance of seeing flowers if we started with the - ?corm, I guess.
> >
> > Well, the vines on mine are coming out of the root node or corm so would expect
> > you could plant one. The jicama is just barely under the surface of the dirt, a
> > little bit exposed at the surface. Haven't dug but the one so far and will have
> > to wait until I'm less busy next week to dig more. Was thinking of letting one
> > stay in the ground to see if a vine would grow when the ground warms up. These
> > definitely aren't treated, don't know about the ones you find in the store.
>
> I've gotten vines from jicama from the store -- the trick for getting it
> to bloom, however, is that it's daylength sensitive. I don't recall
> precisely which regimen is needed, but I *think* it's an almost 12 hour
> night.
>
> Kay Lancaster kay@fern.com
That's probably about right. If IIRC mine started blooming when days were at their
longest this summer and bloomed right up until frost killed the vines. Probably could
have encouraged more root growth if I had pruned the flowers but we enjoyed the vine
and flowers about as much as we will enjoy eating the jicama root.
Y'all staying warm Kay?
George