I have new planted orchard that has several problems. First is grass, lots of it. I plan to schyte the meadow and mulch young
trees. Other is wind, so far I have no windbreak. Another are wild animals, rabbit and
deer, they are eating my trees. And so on. I have idea to improve situation with sunchokes, if they are compatibile with young trees.
I have a patch of sunchokes so tubers are resource that I have in abundance. I know sunchokes are quite heavy feeders, but can they be worse than meadow grass? Let's say I underplant trees with sunchokes. They will use some of nutrients for growth, but I'm not taking this away, they will die and decompose where they have grown. I can use them as wind and sun protection for fruit trees, they will keep soil shaded and moist, I guess. They will provide food for
voles, so they wont eat fruit tree
roots. In autumn, I can tie a bunch of stems around fruit tree to protect it from rabbit. And I have a soil full of food.
Promlem is if I try and notice it does not work, it is hard to get rid of sunchokes. I'm most concern of how agressive they are, will they consume all nutrients or
water and let fruit tree to starve?
Why I'm not trying with other (tested) guilds? I will, I'm not planing to use this combination on whole orchard. Growing sunchokes is so easy that it looks like a good idea for suppressing grass.