Yeah, mine have been through -36F with no mulch and didn't seem stunted by it in the slightest. They don't love cool summers, but cool winters seem like no problem.
Wow, that was a lot to get through. I am considering including sunchokes in a newly started food forest/re-nativization area of about an acre. Soil is silty-loam with red clay at about 6-8" of depth. The property owner is concerned about the aggressive growth nature and wants a plan for control before planting. I would like to cover an area at least 4x20. Any suggestions for containment without breaking the bank? Obviously harvesting all of the tubers when ready would be the ideal method.
One thing I have been mulling over is excavating clay from a section of the property for other projects, but could I use clay to basically build a barrier along the sides of a dug border, down to the depth of the inground clay?
Tracy Steele wrote:I would like to cover an area at least 4x20. Any suggestions for containment without breaking the bank? Obviously harvesting all of the tubers when ready would be the ideal method.
Sorry for being late, just saw this. Containment depends on the varieties you get. If they form seedheads, birds, squirrels, mice, etc. can and will spread the seeds. There are several varieties that spread only by tuber. Make sure you get a variety that doesn't form seeds. Once you've got that, containing them is no problem if you make sure you can mow a border around the entire patch at least twice as wide as the stolons can spread. I have two varieties, I haven't managed to get either one to seed. One has stolons that spread around 16" at most, even in loose soil, the other one spreads up to a bit over 24" in loose soil. If I keep a border regularly mowed of at least 32" on the one and and a border of at least 4' on the other, they don't spread. I had another variety that spread over 4'. They required at least an 8' swath mowed around them! Last year's tubers would try to sprout and spread and they would cross under sidewalks and even driveways! They also tasted nasty, so I got rid of them.
As for harvesting all the tubers ... Forget it! You'd have to sieve ALL the soil from beyond the border of the stalks, as far as the stolons can spread, down to whatever depth they will reach. Not practical as the smallest tubers could be as small as +1/8" and on some varieties, even a piece of stolon could start new plants.
I have a patch of about 5' x 24' and I easily get 30 gallons+ if I harvest fairly aggressively. Even at that, I miss so many I don't have to deliberately leave any for seed.
A compacted clay barrier would slow their spread somewhat, but they'd work into that and over a few years would fracture through the clay. And yes, they will grow in clay, it keeps them from spreading so much so fast, but they'll work at it! If you could build a solid barrier of rammed clay (clay well mixed with cement and compacted), concrete or mortared brick or block and extend it well below their downward spread, you could go that route, but that would be big bucks!! The rammed clay would be some cheaper, but labor intensive! I started one patch in an old shale driveway. After 15 years the shale has been thoroughly broken up and the composted tops have built the soil up fantastically!
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Blaine Clark wrote:
I have a patch of about 5' x 24' and I easily get 30 gallons+ if I harvest fairly aggressively.
How far apart do you space your plants in order to get decent sized tubers? Or is tuber size based more off of variety and water than spacing? And do you try to harvest 100% and then replant, or do you just do a sloppy harvest and let whatever you miss regrow?
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K. Teichmann wrote:Do sunchokes fatten turkeys or pigs?
Fascinating! I used to raise turkeys and pigs and fed 'chokes and greens to the pigs. We also fed a good mix of grains and pretty much anything else to the pigs too, so I don't know if the 'chokes helped fatten them. I know the pigs would go ape-spit over them!! Never fed any to the turkeys and we never let them run in the 'choke patch. Never thought of it ... I do know that the tops have around 16% each of protein and fiber and are most excellent for rabbits, guinea pigs, cows, goats, sheep, whatever. Some even make silage fodder out of the greens for storage of soft and enriched greens. Young turkeys require more protein than adults, so maybe even the greens would do the adults good if they'd convert the protein into fat ... I'd say it's worth trying.
I've heard that when feeding the tubers to chickens, some chicks don't like raw 'chokes so boiling or roasting to soften them makes them much more appealing.
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I'm moving in the middle of Sept. and hope to take some of my sun chokes along. ( from Ontario, 5b to 6b in the new place)
I'll have to cut the stalks off and dig them while they are still active and then plant them quickly since I won't have much storage space suitable to preserve them. Are they likely to do okay?
I have one already in a pot but the bed is large and the more I move, the faster the new place is producing.
I only put them in 2 years ago so haven't processed or dug any yet so am not familiar with how they handle earlier harvesting.
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Brody Ekberg wrote:
How far apart do you space your plants in order to get decent sized tubers? Or is tuber size based more off of variety and water than spacing? And do you try to harvest 100% and then replant, or do you just do a sloppy harvest and let whatever you miss regrow?
When I harvest aggressively, which is seldom, I still don't get all the tubers, plus anything under about 1" I leave. Some summers they're thicker than the hair on a hare and still produce good sized tubers. Soil quality is #1 I believe, light to moderate water while they're in full bloom is #2 and variety is #3 I'd say. They'll grow in most any kind of soil, but the better it is, the better the tuber. I wait until the tops are dead and dried, then I go through and pull the stalks and take whatever tubers come with. The soil in the old patch is loose enough that most of the tubers come right out. I've got a little 1.5" electric chipper that I put the stalks through and scatter the chips over the patches. When I go through after the ones left behind with a sod fork, later or in the spring, the chips get turned under and become fuel for the next years. My patches keep getting better and better each year. I put no fertilizer, lime or anything other than a scatter or two in the fall of Slugo to cut the slug population down. I have some Stampede - I'm guessing and some red skinned Fuseau - maybe. They've been collected locally so I don't know what varieties they are for sure. The Stampede, the oldest ones I have, can produce some massive gnarly tubers the size of baking potatoes in their 15 year old patch. They've more than doubled their size in 15 years, and I don't re-seed with the largest tubers obviously. I could only guess how they'd have done if I'd done that over the years. The red Fuseau are much younger, I've only had them by themselves for three years now and they are much like small to tiny sweet potatoes.
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Dian Green wrote:I'm moving in the middle of Sept. and hope to take some of my sun chokes along. ( from Ontario, 5b to 6b in the new place)
I'll have to cut the stalks off and dig them while they are still active and then plant them quickly since I won't have much storage space suitable to preserve them. Are they likely to do okay?
I have one already in a pot but the bed is large and the more I move, the faster the new place is producing.
I only put them in 2 years ago so haven't processed or dug any yet so am not familiar with how they handle earlier harvesting.
They will probably think it's fall and go dormant till spring. The later you can dig them the better. Plant them sometime before spring, if you can put them in before winter that's best.
If you can, dig them, dump them in a pot or box of dirt, doesn't have to be nicely planted, and move them that way. That will keep them from drying out.
I'll give them over a 93% chance of making it.
Blaine Clark wrote:
When I harvest aggressively, which is seldom, I still don't get all the tubers, plus anything under about 1" I leave. Some summers they're thicker than the hair on a hare and still produce good sized tubers. Soil quality is #1 I believe, light to moderate water while they're in full bloom is #2 and variety is #3 I'd say. They'll grow in most any kind of soil, but the better it is, the better the tuber. I wait until the tops are dead and dried, then I go through and pull the stalks and take whatever tubers come with. The soil in the old patch is loose enough that most of the tubers come right out. I've got a little 1.5" electric chipper that I put the stalks through and scatter the chips over the patches. When I go through after the ones left behind with a sod fork, later or in the spring, the chips get turned under and become fuel for the next years. My patches keep getting better and better each year. I put no fertilizer, lime or anything other than a scatter or two in the fall of Slugo to cut the slug population down. I have some Stampede - I'm guessing and some red skinned Fuseau - maybe. They've been collected locally so I don't know what varieties they are for sure. The Stampede, the oldest ones I have, can produce some massive gnarly tubers the size of baking potatoes in their 15 year old patch. They've more than doubled their size in 15 years, and I don't re-seed with the largest tubers obviously. I could only guess how they'd have done if I'd done that over the years. The red Fuseau are much younger, I've only had them by themselves for three years now and they are much like small to tiny sweet potatoes.
Interesting! Ive got 2 unknown varieties here. One I found in a gravelly ditch, has purple skin and pretty small tubers. The other was given to me, has tan skin and is much larger. Ive got them growing in containers sunk into our garden soil to prevent them from spreading all over the garden. I think i drilled drainage holes in the containers, added a little gravel, then filled with a mix of coarse sand, compost and our native soil. Then some woodchips on top for mulch. They tend to grow pretty crowded so I thin them out but still usually end up with mostly tubers that are so small they are bite sized. Maybe I should take them out of the containers and put them in the ground somewhere I can mow around. Maybe that will give them enough space to grow bigger tubers.
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Inspired by Nicole's nettle paper, I tried making paper out of Jerusalem artichoke (JA) stems. It's reported the cortex of JA contains 54.1% cellulose, 16.3% hemicellulose and 12.5% lignin (Eurasian Chemico-Technological Journal 21(2019) 173-182.), so it seems like the low lignin level will make it easy for hand making paper with home appliances.
I took the traditional steps for paper making of retting and alkaline hydrolysis:
1. Separating lignocellulose by retting the stems in water for a week, rinse well
2. Boil in water to remove more impurities
3. Burn dry grass clippings to make a weak alkaline solution (can buy stronger chemical)
4. Boil JA lignocellulose in alkaline solution for 2 hours to partially remove lignin and hemicellulose (fibers turn from stiff to pliable)
5. Smashed to small pieces with a hammer and later chopped into smaller fragments with a blender (a high speed blender will work much better)
6. Boil chopped okra and use the sticky musilage as binding agent
7. Add small amount of coffee filter paper for strength
8. Mix and blend to make the paper pulp
9. Pour onto a layer of chiffon fabric for shaping
10. Press to remove water and air dry
The finished paper is similar to egg carton felt but stronger and has a lighter color. It makes fun crafting projects.
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Retting Jerusalem artichoke stems in water for fiber
I am truly excited that I have finally found a dedicated area on my plot of land for sunroot/sunchoke/jerusalem artichoke!
I am going to start with three varieties, gauge their performance, and perhaps experiment a little bit with them in the future once they get established.
A. Red Fuseau
B. White Fuseau
C. Beaver Valley Purple
I am looking for Stampede but not in a rush at this time.
My hope to get out of this is a bit of a screen at the end of my property, biomass production, and edible tuber usage. I'm excited to see how this goes.
Vegetables, Flowers, Chickens, Fruit Trees, Grapes
Don't mix the varieties in the same plot. They are allelopathic and will compete with and degrade each other. I learned that the hard way when I rescued some possible Red Fuseau and tossed them into an established patch of possible Stampede. The Stampede had established themselves for years in that patch and severely retarded the Reds, the Reds didn't do well at all until I removed some and put them in their own patch.
I've collected mine locally so I can't guarantee what variety they are.
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May Lotito wrote:Inspired by Nicole's nettle paper, I tried making paper out of Jerusalem artichoke (JA) stems. It's reported the cortex of JA contains 54.1% cellulose, 16.3% hemicellulose and 12.5% lignin (Eurasian Chemico-Technological Journal 21(2019) 173-182.), so it seems like the low lignin level will make it easy for hand making paper with home appliances
....
The finished paper is similar to egg carton felt but stronger and has a lighter color. It makes fun crafting projects.
Testing different leaf decoration techniques
Making a 3D rose with pokeweed stain
That's AMAZING, Mary! Your rose is seriously beautiful, and I love how your paper turned out. I never would have thought to try sunchoke stems. But, that's kind of the cool thing about fiber stuff--once we realize there's fibre in things, we keep realizing more and more things have useful fibre, too!
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