Wild rabbits/hares love Jerusalem Artichoke stems.

So I went to my colony garden today and all of the stems of the Jerusalem artichokes had been cut about 4 inches of the ground and there was a lot of rabbit/hare poop around the box.
Thought this was interesting and could be a good way to cut feeding costs with rabbits since the Jerusalem artichokes are perennial and grow like weeds.

I've been trying to establish Jerusalem Artichokes for this very reason. Mine just won't establish...someone told me the way I planted them (in a sunken tire) prevents proper drainage and that this is the problem. I'm going to change this and see how it does this year.

Other perennials I've planted for the rabbits: willow bush, mulberries, roses...and more to come.

Woodchucks love em too. Despite mine being mowed like yours in the picture, they still produced tubers!

Great news considering I currently raise rabbits and have plans to establish a decent size row of chokes this spring. Right now they are quite content with all the apple tree sucker branches and boxelder shoots. When spring rolls around, I have them pretty covered with purslane, lambs quarter and sorrel, but I was scratching my head on a good feedstock that slots well when the lambs quarter tapers off (they don't seem to care for it when it toughens up in the summer).

I've had great success topping sunchokes all season as daily feed while stimulating the plant to produce more side branching leaf fodder. The end of season stems made great pellets for the winter when they got less juicy and more woody, the stem dries like popcorn and then i just smash it up in the hammer mill. If you can get em going now, sweet potato for it's leaf crop is always great all through summer to pair with squash leaves that have allot of juicyness in a drought for a rabbit. Off topic but springtime blackberry shoot's are like pull and snap if you've got a welding jacket and they freeze really well and dont hold the black berry back much. Once they harden off the rabbits seem to only nibble at it as wood.

Saybian Morgan wrote:I've had great success topping sunchokes all season as daily feed while stimulating the plant to produce more side branching leaf fodder. The end of season stems made great pellets for the winter when they got less juicy and more woody, the stem dries like popcorn and then i just smash it up in the hammer mill. If you can get em going now, sweet potato for it's leaf crop is always great all through summer to pair with squash leaves that have allot of juicyness in a drought for a rabbit.

So, how much can you take off the top of the sunchokes without stressing the plant?

You need to leave at least 2 lower nodes behind to spawn 4 new nodes, you chopped off its head the plant is stressed. So not during a transpiration peak period, but otherwise they are there to be abused once established.

I have them growing wild on my land and I feed the stems and leaves free choice and they're always devoured. Fyi

I am now getting worried for the new Sun Choke patch I am trying to get started out back.

My back yard is about 1/6 acre and currently has 3 adult and at least 5 baby eastern cottontail rabbits. lol

If it is like last year. EVERYTHING will be mowed soon... and the population will explode. I did plant the yard for them this spring though. So maybe next year they will be eating all of that clover and such instead.