How are you using your Sunchoke biomass

Currently, the only livestock I have are chickens.  They won't the foliage, or at least, mine won't.  I've had issues with sunchokes spreading when using the biomass as mulch.  I have a pretty big pile drying on a tarp until I figure out what to do.  I already have more of these things than I could ever hope to use.  I'm thinking about burning it and using the ash somewhere on the property.

I steep the leaves in a big can filled with water to brew for a few days. In warm weather the soft tissues break down into a soupy texture. Even the fibrous stalks break down too given longer time and only the cellulose backbones are left which I spread around plants as mulch. I use the liquid diluted as fertilizer.

In my ecosystem, I just let my sunchoke tops die back to feed the underground portion of the plants. Once dry, they don't regenerate, but they're marginal on my land.

Also the deer eat them.

If I had dried stocks that weren't needed in the compost as extra browns, I'd biochar them as I'd much rather have biochar than ash.

I leave them standing as winter insect habitat where I don't harvest the tubers. Where I do, I either drop them nearby or toss them on a compost heap.

Mine end up as a loose mulch around the beds once the ground freezes. They're so hollow and fibrous they take ages to break down without shredding first, but they do eventually disappear. Bit annoying that a few always seem to root from whatever bits land on soil though.

I wish I had your troubles with biomass to dispose of. Our voles don't leave enough of the chokes for we himans to get a decent harvest. Any ideas? We live in a busy road so barn cats aren't an option

Cindy Cain wrote:I wish I had your troubles with biomass to dispose of. Our voles don't leave enough of the chokes for we himans to get a decent harvest. Any ideas? We live in a busy road so barn cats aren't an option

Have you heard of vole proof fencing?

I have also read that voles don't like open spaces where a predator might attack them so make some open space around the sunchokes.

Encourage snakes to visit your yard by furnishing low pan of water and a rock habitat.

Here are some threads that might help:

https://permies.com/t/40/275416/Permie-deal-Voles

https://permies.com/t/65575/Dealing-Voles-Moles

https://permies.com/t/161387/rid-voles

I try to harvest all of my sunchoke each year, as tubers of the year are more rounded, easier to clean, and since they escaped in my garden, that's going to be quite a chore. I can then sort them, keep the largest/ best ones for us. The damaged ones can go to the chickens or as bait to the deer who absolutely go bananas for them, and hubby still dreams of "bagging the Big One". They made flowers for us this year, but we are expecting our first frost in a week, so I might as well clip them for bouquets: I'll never get seeds out of them, and that will encourage more tuber production, although it's getting late.
I won't do much with the leaves: they can fall and rot wherever they are.
With my brand new machete, the large stalks can be dried out and planted in my hugel to stop the strong winds we can get from the West and North. They will add a lot of height protection. The small ones can be shredded and added as mulch wherever I need mulch which is... everywhere...
Anyway, that's the plan as of 9/29/26.

I’m growing sun chokes mixed with sunflowers, comfrey, locust trees and what ever will grow, to promote soil development.  The plants are drying up in my test plot.  For the winter I will leave the dead stalks standing.  My hope is that they will slow the wind, keep the snow from blowing away, which insulates the ground and provides added moisture to the soil.

The birds will eat - are eating the seeds.

I guess there are tubers below ground, but I am having gut issues and it is probably not the best time to introduce a totally new food item which is rumored to irritate the gut in some people.  The tubers are there incase of starvation conditions or maybe I missed the best harvest conditions.  I don’t know much about harvesting them.

Anyway I’m leaving them standing, and if they blow over, I’ll still leave them in place.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:

I guess there are tubers below ground, but I am having gut issues and it is probably not the best time to introduce a totally new food item which is rumored to irritate the gut in some people.  The tubers are there incase of starvation conditions or maybe I missed the best harvest conditions.  I don’t know much about harvesting them.
.

About these "gut issues". It's a pity that you have gut issues with them as these tall plants are very resilient and do produce an enormous amount of food for  practically nothing.
The red ones are quite farty, the white ones not so much.
The culprit is inulin. To lessen its effects:
• Acid boiling: Simmer sliced sunchokes in water mixed with lemon juice or vinegar for about 10 to 15 minutes before roasting or using them in a recipe.
• Fermentation: Pickle the sunchokes first, as the live bacteria consume the gas-producing inulin during the jarring process.
• Smaller portions: Eat small amounts at a time so your digestive system can adjust to the prebiotic fiber. I know that the first time I consume them, I must use only a small amount, then I can increase the dose. Eventually, I can eat a normal portion raw. (It's a bit like mosquito bites: the first ones of the season cause the biggest reaction. afterwards, not so much.)
• Pair with digestive herbs: Serve your dish alongside carminative herbs and spices like ginger, fennel, or peppermint tea

Mine are dying back right now,so I'm cutting the stalks and stripping off the leaves.
They are sitting in the car right now, getting a little solar drying.
These will be for our two pet bunnies as winter treats.

The leaves and any stalks that are already brown go right into a nearby bed or pathway.
I'm harvesting the roots for my neighbor who is doing a vegetarian farm to table catering gig.
I'm replacing them with pots of raspberry cuttings, though I'm putting a sunchoke and beans in each pot.

Cindy Cain wrote:I wish I had your troubles with biomass to dispose of. Our voles don't leave enough of the chokes for we himans to get a decent harvest. Any ideas? We live in a busy road so barn cats aren't an option

I am still experimenting as this is my first year growing them, but I grew them on top of a hugel mound with a six inch trench around it.  I dug the trench and put them on the hugel to keep the sunchokes from escaping, but the unexpected benefit is  I could see gopher holes in that garden area and see where they went right up to the trench and when they hit daylight in the trench, they turned around.  I'm also hopeful that if they made it across the trench that running into big logs would be a turn off also. Maybe this will work for voles also.

I am going to try to attach a picture but I don't know if it will work, but I think you get the idea from my description.  

my sunchoke picture on my google drive