Mauka, Blanco

Mauka information and growing instructions

This variety is offered every year, barring crop failure.

Blanco produces large clusters of white/tan roots.  We generally find it to be higher yielding than our other variety, Rojo.  Its leaves also seem to have less calcium oxalate or whatever substance is responsible for the strange mouth feel that mauka leaves sometimes produce, but this varies with conditions and some people seem to be more sensitive than others.  Flowers are white and produced abundantly in early spring if you can keep the plants alive over winter.  Blanco produces enough to eat in a single growing season, but has much higher yields after two years.

I previously offered mauka caudices, but they had an unacceptably high failure rate.  The standard offering is now tissue culture plantlets.  I produce plantlets on demand with a lead time of about six weeks.  I also offer seeds when I produce enough excess, but that does not happen every year because they are produced individually over a long period of time and are kind of a pain to collect.

Mauka is one of the few Andean root crops that is true breeding (or at least apparently so).  The seeds are easy to start and have a germination rate of 90% or more.  Plants grown from seed should be harvested in their second year or later unless you have a very long growing season.