Vegetable · Tropaeolaceae
When to plant mashua
An Andean climber grown for tubers that form very late in the season, on a plant almost nothing eats.
Plant out
0 weeks after
Counted from your last spring frost.
Days to maturity
180-210
From sowing to a first picking.
Hardy in USDA zones
8a to 10a
Winter cold sets the limit here, not the calendar.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make mashua plantable anywhere.
- Plant out 0 weeks after the last frost.
- Expect 180–210 days to maturity, counted from sowing.
- Hardy in USDA zones 8a–10a.
Frost tolerance
As for oca: the tops go at about -2C and the crop is lifted afterwards.
Classified as tender, with damage expected below -2°C (28.4°F)28.4°F (-2°C).