Frequently Asked Questions About True Oca Seeds

Will you ship oca seeds to other countries?

We no longer ship oca seeds outside the USA.  The phytosanitary risk of oca seeds is not well known, but because oca shares some viruses in common with potato, which is heavily regulated, I don’t feel comfortable putting customers at risk.  This could change in the future, but for now, I’m playing it safe.

Which of the three groups is the best one?

There really is no best.  Group 3 is the closest to my current breeding work and so is probably the best place to look for varieties that have earlier tuberization and heavy flowering.  Group 2 is the most genetically diverse.  Group 1 is the closest to the heirloom varieties and probably the least genetically diverse.

Why would I buy seed from a named variety instead of a breeding mix?

People who buy single parent seed lines are probably looking for specific characteristics found in the parent variety.  You might buy seed from a named variety if you are planning on doing breeding and want to begin with varieties that have certain characteristics.  You might also buy this type of seed if you cannot import the variety as a tuber and want to try to select a new variety that is substantially similar to the parent.  Seed banks and researchers also typically prefer seed from known varieties for their projects.

How many seedlings will I get from a packet?

This is impossible to answer, since conditions and technique vary.  That said, if you grow in a favorable climate and follow our seed starting instructions, I think most people can expect to get about 20% to maturity.  So, from a 50 seed packet, figure on 10 plants still standing at the end of the season.  From a 300 seed packet, about 60.

Why is oca seed so expensive?

Oca seed does not mature uniformly.  We must harvest it daily from June through November.  Seed pods cannot be left on the plant because they explosively expel the seeds when ripe.  Seed pods must be finished in containers and then the seeds must be separated from the pods.  All of these steps involve a considerable amount of work.

Individual variety seed lines particularly are a low volume specialized product that require a lot of attention during the growing season to produce in amounts sufficient for sale.  The price for seed of individual varieties ranges considerably, currently from $9 to $30 per 30 seeds.  This reflects the difficulty in producing those seeds.  For example, Amarillo requires hand pollination, has a huge failure rate, and yields about 3 seeds per pod, while Redshift produces abundant pods with only insect pollination and yields about 8 seeds per pod.  The more work we have to put in, the more the seeds cost.

Why did I get poor germination?

That’s a good question and one that I don’t have a good answer for.  People sometimes report poor germination from oca seeds when they appear to have done everything right.  I germination test the batches that we sell and the tests always turn out pretty good.  When I get many reports of poor germination, I retest the seeds that we are selling and have invariably gotten good germination.  Perhaps there is something about our local conditions that I take for granted.  One thing that I often think is neglected is ensuring that the surface of the growing medium is frequently sprayed with water when seeds are surface sown.  If the soil dries out at the surface, which happens quickly under lights, the seeds will not germinate.  Also, you should probably not put lights over the seeds until some have begun to germinate.  You risk overheating them.  Most of the time, when I have tried to troubleshoot this with customers, I haven’t come up with any evidence of incorrect technique.  We’re still in the early years of oca breeding and there is a lot that we don’t know.