permaculture

[dwoodard@becon.org]

I've planted a few tubers of the local wild type in a naturalized park
here in St. Catharines in the Niagara Peninsula, Agriculture Canada zone
7a, near the northern limit of commericial peach growing.

>From observation and report, yields seem to be low. I haven't seen any
seeds so far, but this might be due to strain or climate. It has been
suggested to me that plants farther south may produce seed better.

>From observation and report; they seem to strongly prefer moist soil.

I get the impression that in the wild they may be mostly an edge plant
although I see places where they grow in full sun.

I've been told of both squirrels and deer digging them up.

I've read that a couple of scientists in the southerm U.S. have been
trying to breed them as a commercial crop.

I've been told that the original Puritan settlers in New England
depended heavily on ground-nut in their earliest days.

I surmise that both the first Eurpean settlers and their pigs (normally
allowed to run in the woods) must have drastically reduced the
population of ground-nut. I surmise also that the natives had learned to
manage them and knew how much they could collect without damaging the
stands.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada




On Sat, 11 Feb 2006, Lisa in Oregon wrote:

> Is there some reason this doesn't get talked about much, or am I
> missing some problem with it?  N-fixing and 17% protein!  Is it any
> good?  Seems like I hear from time to time about various lost crops
> of the incas but not about this lost crop of the native north
> americans...
>
> Lisa in Ashland Oregon