are jerusalem artichokes good for bees?

Which variety of Jerusalem artichokes are best for bees?In fact are Jerusalem artichokes good for bees?Where is the best place to buy tubers?

My JA don't flower until very late in the year, late Sept or early Oct, and the bees don't really seem to pay any attention to it.  You can buy it from our very own Joseph Lofthouse.

Here in northern France they rarly flower at all . So for the bees nothing

David

All of the sunflower family including the Jerusalem Artichoke are good for predatory bugs.  Predatory micro-wasps, beneficial flys, ladybugs and of course the Carolina mantis as they like anything with a bug on it.   I just planted them this year and it was late so I didn't get any blooms .  I think the deer ate the tops off of them so I can not attest to pollinators.   Some of the organic websites say that goldfinch, bees, and butterflys like them.

Mine didn't flower until late Sept. and early Oct. and those blossoms only lasted about a week. I see JA as a better resource for other purposes, not so much for pollinators. My chickens love the tubers.

I don't see honeybees on sunroot flowers.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
I don't see honeybees on sunroot flowers.

Are you doing seeds this year?   I live in NW New Jersey on the New York, Pennsylvania boarder....wondering if you'll have any good seeds for this area.

Scott Foster wrote:Are you doing seeds this year?   I live in NW New Jersey on the New York, Pennsylvania boarder....wondering if you'll have any good seeds for this area.

The sunroot flowers look like they got frozen prematurely this year. I still went through the motions of collecting the seed heads. They are still drying. I expect to thresh them in a few weeks, so will have a better idea then.

I have a lot of semi-improved feral pollinated sunroot seeds. I don't recommend them for eating, only for naturalization, decorative flowers, or breeding projects.

I am currently digging the genetically diverse landrace tubers, and am selling a box of mixed varieties for $15.

If seeds become available, I'll add them to my seed list. A link to it is in the signature of this post.

I grow dwarf sunray sunchoke and it matures early and flowers consistently.  Insects do visit, I'm pretty sure I have seem bees on them.  My problem is they are so early if I forget to pull them out of the ground they tend to rot. So I pull them out and store them in the fridge

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:

Scott Foster wrote:Are you doing seeds this year?   I live in NW New Jersey on the New York, Pennsylvania boarder....wondering if you'll have any good seeds for this area.

The sunroot flowers look like they got frozen prematurely this year. I still went through the motions of collecting the seed heads. They are still drying. I expect to thresh them in a few weeks, so will have a better idea then.

I have a lot of semi-improved feral pollinated sunroot seeds. I don't recommend them for eating, only for naturalization, decorative flowers, or breeding projects.

I am currently digging the genetically diverse landrace tubers, and am selling a box of mixed varieties for $15.

If seeds become available, I'll add them to my seed list. A link to it is in the signature of this post.

I was looking at your Landrace link, probably not going to be hardy in my area,..looks like you may be in high-desert.  Not sure.   How are you breeding for diversity...this is something I would dedicate an area to.

Regards, Scott

Scott Foster wrote:I was looking at your Landrace link, probably not going to be hardy in my area,..looks like you may be in high-desert.  Not sure.   How are you breeding for diversity...this is something I would dedicate an area to.

I'm two USDA hardiness zones colder than you....

My breeding project originally consisted of growing feral sunroot seeds from Kansas. And selecting for best growth and productivity, to come up with a semi-improved strain. Then crossing that strain with a domestic sunroot variety. Then I reselected for good culinary and agronomic traits. Then crossed the best of the best.

The thing about breeding sunroots, is that I have to plant the new seedlings in an area that has never had sunroots before, so I can tell the difference between new seedlings, and old strains. So the sunroot weeds proliferate, and I never quite get rid of them in the areas where they grew previously.

I live in Portland OR, I have 3 varieties and none of them flower that much so at least here they're not a good bee plant.

My sunroot are usually visited by eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica) and a local green sweat bee (Agapostemon species), in addition to a number of butterfly species I can't identify.

I've never seen domestic honeybee on sunroot.

We have "diversity sunchokes" that we received from Oikos before they shut down. They are in full flower now and we have seen a total of 3 honeybees on them. Not nothing, but also nothing to write home about. Will be curious what if any viable seed comes from them as they are a big mix of varieties.

My Jerusalem artichokes are in full bloom right now and I see lots of honey bees on them. Skippers, soldier beetles and occasionally monarch butterflies are attracted too. Goldenrods are blooming side by side and it seems various wasps prefer goldenrods.

I don't know what variety I have but here are the flowers.

Snapped this picture earlier today. There were about 15 or so honey bees on this patch when I passed by. It's getting pretty chilly here and beyond mint and sunflowers, there's not a ton of options so maybe it's better than nothing for them.

Went out to investigate my sunroot flowers and they're mostly being serviced by tiny little wasp-like things I don't know the names of. I'm happy to be helping them out, whatever they are!

Biomass, food, and pollinator friendly.

I would be curious to see the honey from bees that are feeding in a Sunroot dense area and how it compares to other types of honey.