• Harvested oca tubers with red and yellow skins
  • Representative oca growing or flowering in a garden
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Oca

Oca

Cultivar & Origin

Oca is offered as root divisions. Oca is an Andean tuber crop with a long cultivation history in South America and a more recent following in New Zealand and temperate kitchen gardens.

 Plant highlights
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Why We Grow It

We grow oca for the pleasure of lifting a crop that looks and tastes different from the usual garden roots. It adds variety to the kitchen and gives us planting tubers to carry into the next season. Use it as a seasonal understory crop in a sunny guild gap, with low foliage covering soil during growth.

How the Plant Grows

Low leafy plants form tubers as days shorten. Protect late growth from frost and lift tubers for storage.

Plant Size

Size at Maturity- Usually about 1 ft tall with a spreading canopy.

Current Size-

Additional Info

Oca is an Andean tuber crop with a long cultivation history in South America and a more recent following in New Zealand and temperate kitchen gardens. Save sound tubers frost-free for replanting.

Oca is an Andean tuber crop with clover-like leaves and colourful small tubers. It brings something different to the autumn harvest and a lively patch of green to the summer garden. The tubers develop as days shorten, making a long, mild autumn especially valuable for a good crop.
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  • Harvested oca tubers with red and yellow skins
  • Representative oca growing or flowering in a garden

Plant Highlights

  • Water

    Consistent moisture without saturation.

  • Pollination

    Not needed for tuber production.

  • Soil

    Loose, fertile, well-drained soil.

  • Years to Bear

    One growing season; tubers develop late in autumn.

  • Hardiness

    Seasonal crop for zones 2–6 and warmer with suitable season extension. Lift the tubers before the ground freezes and store them frost-free over winter, much like dahlias. Protect autumn foliage from frost so the late-forming tubers have time to develop; short-season gardens may need a greenhouse or other protected growing space. Zone tags describe seasonal growing, not winter survival.

  • Solar

    Sun; cooler summers are generally favourable.