Oca tubers keep like potatoes. I don't know about yacon.

You can keep oca tubers in the fridge, but I don't think that you need to for propagating material. Just a cool dark place should be fine.

I'm not sure what condition your potted plants are in, but you probably want to expose them to the autumn conditions and maybe a frost to kill off the top growth. I'm not sure if they will die off properly indoors.

In NZ oca grows really well and there is no issue propagating it up. I planted some at the end of August and they are up now. I planted about a dozen tubers, maybe a few more, and I'm warned that I will probably end up with bucketloads.

jekyll, Thank you! I purposely brought them in so that the frost wouldn't get them. We had our first hard frost last night so I'll take them back out and let them be exposed.

How long have you been able to keep them inside for the next season? Here in Colorado I won't be able to put them out until mid-may next year. What is the ideal storage situation? I suppose a cool-dark place? We used to keep our carrots all winter in sand, what would you suggest?

I can't tell you about Oca, I'm growing it this year for the first, and possibly only, time. So far, healthy plants but zip, zero, null on the tubers. I see what might be the beginning of tubers, now about the size of a grain of tapioca, but they'll never make it. It sounds like a killing freeze coming this weekend. I've got a few in pots, will throw into the greenhouse and see what they do.

But, yacon I did last year. I dug the roots in Oct, pulled off the edible roots. The propagation roots really do look sort of like Jerusalem Artichokes, and cluster on the stems, whereas the edible roots look like white sweet potatos and grow out away from the stems.

After I dug them last year, I let them sit for the afternoon in the sun and wind to dry them out, then put them in my basement near the dehumidifier on a tray for about 3 days to dry them more. Then, I put the roots into paper grocery sacks, folded down the tops, and stored them in my basement which is kept at about 60 degrees. They were hale and healthy in March, and starting to grow. I had 3 plants originally, divided them into 6 plants last year at planting time. From those 6 plants last year, I had enough sprouted eye pieces to yield 30 plants this year. I started mine in March under growlights in the basement, transferred out to the greenhouse in April, and outdoors in late May. The plants were almost a foot tall and very healthy when the went into th ground.

I guess I could easily get enough roots to make 100 plants next year if I saved all of the propagation stock.

Keep in mind that oca only produces tubers when days are shorter than 12 hours - but frost kills their tops. So you do want to protect them from frost until late fall so they have a chance to produce tubers. They're probably just getting started at bulbing up now.

promethean_spark, Thanks! So, shall I bring the pots inside and keep them going as long as I can? It did frost last night but they were covered and seem to have pulled through okay.

We eat the Tubers of the Yacon. When you dig the plant you will find small,dark colored and round tuber(seeds). Plant them next year.
Jim

I haven't stored oca for long periods, but another gardener that I know said he planted his in late summer and harvested plenty in winter, so they must have been stored since the previous winter.

Also based on that, they should be fine for short seasons, but it might be a race between the daylength and the frost for you. Where I am, frost isn't likely until later in May at the earliest (equivalent to late November for you?) and even then frost is fairly rare. Basically it is too wet and windy to get much frost.

I didn't realise the daylength induced tuber formation, but that means that mine, planted in late winter, might have taken over the garden before they start producing any tubers. Then I'll probably be overrun with them. Oh well, there are worse things to be overrun with.