Cécile Stelzer Johnson

John Weiland wrote:

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:...............
[i]"Sunchokes thrive in full sun and loose, well-drained soil with a pH between \(5.8\) and \(6.2\). While they are hardy and grow in many conditions, they produce the best crop in loose soil that allows for tuber expansion, making harvesting easier. Sunchokes are adapted to a wide range of climates, growing well from USDA hardiness zones 3 through 8. Soil Ideal: Sunchokes prefer loose, well-drained soil. Adding aged compost or sand can improve heavier soils.
pH: An ideal soil pH is between \(5.8\) and \(6.2\). They can tolerate a wider range from \(4.5\) to \(8.2\).
Tolerance: The plants will grow in a wide variety of soil types, even poor or rocky ones.
Drainage: Avoid heavy, waterlogged clay soil, as this can result in smaller tubers and make harvesting difficult. Climate Sunlight: They do best in full sun but will tolerate partial shade.

This would explain why our decades-old patch produces such puny tubers.  They aren't bad to eat and can be relatively abundant in certain years, but rarely are larger than your thumb.  Our soil (zone 4/3)   is on the heavy side of clay and poor in drainage even as the organic matter is quite high. Soil pH hovers around 7-8.  I think our sunchokes are feeling the insults of these conditions....and the presence of a little invasive worm/grub in many of the tubers doesn't help matters.  But none of this effects its hardiness and intentions on taking over the garden! ;-)

Yep. Once you start correcting what bothers them, you should have nice tubers. If you grow them in  big tubs, the little invasive worms might go as well, as you will have more control over the conditions, especially the soil. Heavy soil makes it a nightmare to harvest!
I forgot to mention: I drill those tubs not on the bottom but on the sides, around 2" or 3". this way, with sandy soil, I have a small reserve of water at the bottom, but that should not be your case: you have clay.

May Lotito wrote:

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
As far as "the bumper crops that I see others harvesting", we tend to think of sunchokes as an indestructible tuber that loves neglect. That's not quite true: if we want bumper crops, we have to nourish that crop and limit the weeds or we'll get pretty puny and twisted tubers, just like any other crop.

Cecile's remark reminded me of one of my sunchoke patches. The soil is of low fertility, even though I top dresses with compost and the plants seemed lush, there were few tubers to harvest. I dug a few plants and found out there was only one for each plant, even smaller than I originally planted! Where did all the carbohydrates go? So I left them as and the next year they regrew, and this time it was even worse, when summer drought set in, all the plants just turned black and died. Something is seriously wrong with the soil and sunchokes are not indestructible.

Hi, May. You didn't indicate what kind of soil you have: "Low fertility" could apply to my sandbox as well. Is is sandy or more clayish? but that might be the first thing to remedy. When you say "lush" growth, it seems to indicate a lot of nitrogen, with the plants growing very tall but nothing to show for it?
Sunchoke like their soil light so the tubers can grow and expand.  (I prefer to plant them in large tubs, (55 gallon barrels cut in half, filled to the top with soil, which makes it much easier to harvest *ALL* of the tubers, as they can be quite invasive)
This is what AI says about the best conditions:
"Sunchokes thrive in full sun and loose, well-drained soil with a pH between \(5.8\) and \(6.2\). While they are hardy and grow in many conditions, they produce the best crop in loose soil that allows for tuber expansion, making harvesting easier. Sunchokes are adapted to a wide range of climates, growing well from USDA hardiness zones 3 through 8. Soil Ideal: Sunchokes prefer loose, well-drained soil. Adding aged compost or sand can improve heavier soils.
pH: An ideal soil pH is between \(5.8\) and \(6.2\). They can tolerate a wider range from \(4.5\) to \(8.2\).
Tolerance: The plants will grow in a wide variety of soil types, even poor or rocky ones.
Drainage: Avoid heavy, waterlogged clay soil, as this can result in smaller tubers and make harvesting difficult. Climate Sunlight: They do best in full sun but will tolerate partial shade.
Temperature: Sunchokes are very hardy and can grow in a wide range of climates, from cold regions like Alaska to warmer areas. They are native to eastern North America.
Growing Season: They require a frost-free growing period of 110 to 150 days to mature.
Frost: A light frost can make the tubers sweeter, and you can extend the harvest in colder climates by adding a thick layer of mulch after the first frost to keep the ground from freezing". 
They are heavy feeders if you want a good crop, but I'm puzzled that in your zone, you didn't get a better crop. I'm in zone 4b and get good crops if I water my half barrels. If you look at the ideal conditions and an analysis of your soil sample, you might find out what went wrong.
Next, I'd question the compost: Many cities will *give* you their "compost".
They get their material from folks like you and me, but sometimes, those folks put herbicide on their lawn, so that compost would have that in it, and not many things would grow in that...
Good luck for next year: Don't give up! Sunchokes are really a great crop and saved my folks from starving in occupied France during WWII!

Thanks for the list, Anne. It's very helpful. Sunchokes can be planted any time the ground isn't frozen. Garlic [the stiffneck type is all I know] does better if planted in the fall in my zone 4b. there is a short turnover in November we harvest and sort the ones we want to eat, and a week later, we plant the ones for next year.
I didn't know about shallots, so I'll have to try that. I tried once to plant it in the spring and the results weren't so good.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Hi. My Sunchokes are flowering beautifuly. Here's a photo so you can enjoy them too.

thanks for the pic. I'm in Central WI, zone 4B n our weather has been so warm and the days so long that I too have a few flowers on some of my sunchokes. It's going to freeze tonight. our first frost of the year, which is surprising.. Then I can start harvesting my sunchokes. Well, it may not be a big crop as the deer have been coming when the plants were small. But some escaped their ravages. I can't wait! We'll see. I'll have to harvest my sweet potatoes too!

Operator error with a pressure cooker can be dangerous because the contents will be very hot and under pressure. Do not operate with a missing or inoperative pressure relief valve,  a gasket that is cracked or ill fitting and do not overfill. In particular, it's not a good idea to try and fit 'just that one last jar' if it doesn't slip in normally.
The pressure relief valve is here to save us from our mistakes: It will blow through the hole left by the lead plug directly up. [It will prevent an explosion. It will mess up your ceiling, for sure, but there will be no shrapnel blowing in all directions].
Also, if you want to stop the cooking, turn off the heat but don't try to muscle it open. This could be deadly.
If you cook some beets [ask me how I know!] even if you know that you are well over the time needed, just get the pressure cooker outside and wait. Trying to depressurize by running cold water will suck the moisture contents out of your jars.
(Think of an airplane high in the sky getting hit and having sudden cabin depressurization, the passengers and the contents of the airplane flying out of the hole... Same principle).

Flora Eerschay wrote:Cécile, these are quail eggs.
We're eating the oldest hatching eggs, because the hens continue laying, and I don't need more. I just need to store them for as long as possible at the moment. Some people say that their quails have already stopped laying, but I'm still getting an egg per day from each hen.

They look big! you are obviously doing something right.

Christopher Weeks wrote:I’ve been thinking about this issue of running short on time. I normally wait for the stalks to start drying down before I do any harvesting. But that doesn’t leave very much time before the ground freezes. So I just went out and scooped up six or 8 inches of sand underneath four stalks that were only 2 to 3 feet tall just right on the edge of my patch. I still got a reasonable handful of tubers for almost no work.

Not bad. I notice you have a couple of red ones. I didn't understand "fartichokes" until I tasted those. Not that far in flavor to the white ones, but Yikes! the belly cramps!
You can probably keep working on the edge to get more, a little each day? Courage: We still have one week of temperatures  well above normal 10 F + above normal, and sunshine. You are West and North of me, but still. The weather should shine upon us for a bit longer.
Wishing the best for you!

Flora Eerschay wrote:Three hatching eggs which have spent a week in the portable cooler were cooked with two eggs that went straight to a normal fridge (these were 2 days old), and they all looked and tasted the same.
At the moment there are approximately 20-24 hatching eggs in the cooler, and if hens continue laying, I can keep replacing the oldest eggs and they will be not older than a week. So if the hens stop laying, the hatching eggs can be stored for 10 days and the oldest will be 17 days old. Or they will ruin my math by being inconsistent ;)
Anyway, we had guests so I made a fancy dish with sheep ricotta, garden herbs and flowers!

Are they quail eggs, or pigeons eggs or chicken eggs? The size says chicken eggs, (but I'm not sure  because we were talking quails and pigeons). My other question is: why are you eating your "hatching eggs"? (Aren't hatching eggs the ones that were carefully selected for hatching?) after one week, all cooled eggs will have no living embryo but should still be delicious.
This looks like a really delicious dish. Pretty fancy too. It's a good choice to do them hard boiled after about 10 days because the shell will separate more easily than with fresher eggs.

Timothy Norton wrote:We are starting to approach the end of my gardening season and it is about time that I hand my enclosed garden space over to the hens.
I'm starting to get some weeds popping up in my woodchip pathways, this indicates to me that we may have some rich compost built up that will need harvesting. I will start digging up the pathways to sift and spread the material into the beds after they have been picked over. however need to get ahold of some new carbon rich material to put into the pathways.

My ladies who are just about to lay have been merged with the old flock with minimal pecking and quarrelling about the best roosting spot, so I'm happy about that. The 11 roosters remaining have been placed on garden tearing duty. They found the comfrey bed, unfortunately, and there are not enough of them for the surface to be cleaned, but they are at work every day.
What I did wrong is that I didn't put them on scratching garden early enough: There are some mighty tall weeds and they have trouble even trampling them. I wish there was a chicken/ turkey, duck renting outfit in the area to help with this cleaning chore in the garden!
I placed some carpeting materials in some paths, some chips in others. It takes about 3 years for the chips to get integrated, then I can flip them into the neighboring beds.
We are lucky here: The town demand that everyone who has leaves rake them and place them in paper sacks along the streets. So right around now, when the maples are just starting to turn color, I'm making a mental note of where there are maples etc.. Later, I'll swoop by with my Murano and pick up the sacs [with the owner's permission, of course -some of the smarter folks put their leaves in a pile in the back for their [tiny] garden]. Drats!
Last year, I got 92 bags [the big kind, like 55 gallon bags]. With one of these Ryobi vacuuming tools, I suck and shred the leaves to add to the garden as mulch for some bushes.
I started from essentially zero good soil (just sand). Now, I'm happy to report that I have almost a foot of pretty darn good soil... on top of 35 ft of sand.

Julie Baghaoui wrote:Can someone speak to the save vitamins part of this? I’ve always heard the opposite, and frankly it’s the reason I’ve avoided PCs for so long, is that they destroy more vitamins in the food given the higher heating point. Does it depend on the vitamin?

Nutritionfacts.org says that generally, pressure cooking is better from a nutritional standpoint, although it depends on the food being processed.
Because it uses less water than boiling and the cooking time is less, pressure cooking seems to preserve more of the vitamins, with Vitamin C being the most easily destroyed, so thanks for the question: I didn't know that and I had to look it up.
https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/are-nutrients-preserved-by-pressure-cooking/