Addi Anchote

Anybody growing this root that's native to Ethiopia? I was browsing expiremental farm network and picked up some seeds that are now germinating.

https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/addi-anchote-white-hanchotte

Ooh - that looks exciting!

The young shoots and leaves can also be eaten, and are high in protein, though apparently not all communities bother with them as food for humans. The entire plant, including the root, is frequently fed to animals.

source

Please let us know how you get on with it Russell.

I'm going to use this space to document the process of growing anchote from seed to harvest. Hope this is useful to anyone else who chooses to grow it!

The seeds look almost like a thick flat cucumber seed ( which kind of makes sense since it's in the Cucurbitaceae family). I filed down a tiny part of the shell since they are so hard and soaked them for 24 hours in warm water before planting them about .5 inch in a mix of sand, perilite and coco coir. The shell was not very thick so i just lightly sanded it down.

Its been a little over 2 weeks and the seeds are just starting to pop up now. I am going to keep them under grow lights until around the end of May in a space thats pretty cool, no idea where I am going to plant them outside yet though.

Of all the seedlings 2 have survived and are putting out true leaves now. I was away and I think the person looking after them may have over watered them. Good to note that the seedlings don't love very wet soil. I'm about 3 weeks from hardening them off and in the ground.