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From:	S B (dialup-4.235.147.140.dial1.orlando1.level3.net)
Subject:	Jicama Update -- It grew fine in North Central Florida! (more….)
Date:	March 9, 2006 at 4:39 pm PST

Since jicama is a tropical plant and needs short days and long nights to produce tubers, I was not sure if our falls here in northern Florida would be long enough for it to produce a decent crop before the first “killing” frosts/freezes hit.

With my fingers crossed, I started some seed last spring. (There are several varieties of jicama. I grew Pachyrhizus tuberosus.)

I used lightly limed average organic soil which contained composted and partially composted banana peelings (as many as I could get my hands on) because they are a good source of potassium and other things. (I have read that root crops need a decent supply of potassium to be sweet and to have a good texture.) Also, since jicama is in the “bean family”, I figured that once it got growing it would most likely use the nitrogen-fixing bacteria already in the soil (used by the various types of peas, beans, and lima beans I have grown in the recent past) to obtain its nitrogen -- and, from the way the vines grew, it appeared to have done this -- although I cannot prove it.

By early fall, the 8-foot long or longer vines were loaded with beautiful purple blooms which I left ON the vines (even though some things I read said to remove them to help make the tubers grow larger). By November, most the vines were about 10 to 12 feet long -- some were longer! -- and many “beans” covered the vines were the blooms had been.

Fortunately, we had a mild late fall/early winter and our first “killing” freeze did not come until around Christmas time. I harvested the first jicamas on Christmas Eve and left the remaining ones IN the ground.

The tubers were medium-size and DELICIOUS -- sweet like apples or pears, crispy/crunchy (but not hard), and very slightly juicy (like apples or pears). Soon after I harvested the first ones, I cut back the vines on the remaining ones (now dead from freezing weather) to a few inches above the ground -- and left the remaining jicama tubers IN the ground.

I allowed some of the remaining jicamas to stay in the ground until late February. They kept WELL! Even though they were not as sweet as the ones harvested BEFORE the vines were completely dead from frost, their overall freshness, taste, and appearance were still better than store bought ones.

Overall, I was very pleased with the results.

I plan to grow more this year -- but I am not sure if the beans they produced had enough time to get mature enough to grow. So, I recently started some bought seed AND some saved seed -- and will see if the saved ones did have enough time to mature. As of this writing, neither have come up.

Will let you all know if the saved seeds do come up.

Happy Organic Gardening!

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