Russell Apotheker

Nancy Reading wrote:The fruit seems to be (at least) unpalatable, but it would have been nice to have been able to save seed. Do you think it is a shorter daylength thing? Some plants from the tropics flower when the days get shorter....

Yes, my hope was to collect seed and start selecting for earlier and earlier blooms. I've read the fruits need a long window for ripening though. I haven't come across anything about the flowering being daylight dependant, but that could be possible as well!

I do have a small hope that I can overwinter some smaller roots in storage and plant them back out in the spring to get a head start next year (and maybe get it to start fruiting earlier).

It's growing mixed in with a giant delicata plant, so im going to have to wait a few more weeks to pull everything back and see what the root harvest looks like.

It's still growing and climbing over my trellis now! I don't think its going to produce any fruit but im hoping when I clear away the mass of delicatas that its intertwined with that there's a decent root to harvest. So it seems that vermont summers are way too short to produce fruit as we are due for our first frost in about a month.

Starting to harden the seedlings off to go outside. They are getting bigger and starting to develop tendrils!

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.

Mine never made it through the winter but started another 6 or so from seed and will be planning to take cuttings to hedge my bets this winter.

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.

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

Have you had any success? Trialing this right now in Northern Vermont. I suspect they will die back to thw ground but hopeful the roots will survive under mulch and snow pack.

Snapped this picture earlier today. There were about 15 or so honey bees on this patch when I passed by. It's getting pretty chilly here and beyond mint and sunflowers, there's not a ton of options so maybe it's better than nothing for them.

We have "diversity sunchokes" that we received from Oikos before they shut down. They are in full flower now and we have seen a total of 3 honeybees on them. Not nothing, but also nothing to write home about. Will be curious what if any viable seed comes from them as they are a big mix of varieties.