When the kumara were harvested, we bagged all tubers according to their mound, and later weighed each tuber to 1 g precision, and kept records by plant and mound.
Some 1070 tubers were thus weight, giving a total weight of
this harvest of 29.4 kg. This is equivlent to 11.8 tonne per hectare.
These tubers are quite small compared with modern kumara varieties,
with a mean weight of 29.3 g. They are also
elongated in shape
In the second season, only one seed kumara was planted in each of the
38 mounds at Robin Hood Bay. The total yield of this harvest in 2000-2001
was 19.1 kg, somewhat down on the previous year. This summer season
was an exceptional drought (the worst in 100 years), and many people
were surprised at this level of productivity, expecting a much lower
result. This is equivalent to 7.6 tonne per hectare. The mean tuber weight
was 25.7 g.
In the second season we also prepared a second garden, this time in
Palliser Bay, at Whatarangi. One seed kumara
for mount was planted, exactly the same arrangement as at Robin Hood Bay,
using seed kumara from the first season harvest. The growth of plants
in this new garden was impressive.
This garden produced a total harvest weight of 25.7 kg, equivalent to
10.3 tonne per hectare. The average tuber weight was 44.1 g.
It was notable that the Palliser Bay garden produced considerably larger
larger tubers compared to Robin Hood Bay.
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