jerusalem artichoke with powdery mildew.

My lush gargantuan stand of jerusalem artichoke has been almost completely inundated with powdery mildew. Has anyone dealt with this already? What worked? Can you still eat the chokes? Is there a simple way to determine the specific fugus it is? Do the plants need to be bagged and chucked when I take them out or can they be composted? What can I do to prevent a repeat next season? The butterflies are loving the flowers this week, and the rest of the plant is like an army of blech.  Any info and experience you have will be a great help. Thank you.     Ian

In my experience, the powdery mildew has no effect on the tubers.  I'd let the butterflies enjoy what they can while they have the chance. When the stalks are dying back naturally later in the fall, I cut them down and use them as mulch (chop and drop), then I harvest the tubers as I need them.  I've never seen any bad result of having the mildew on the plants.  Sunchokes are so prolific that I can't imagine too many things aside from rodents being a problem for them.

Good luck

Thank you for responding to my post. I'm somewhat clueless but determined. Have a beautiful autumn.

Ian Sullivan wrote:Thank you for responding to my post. I'm somewhat clueless but determined. Have a beautiful autumn.

Thank you.

keep at it and before you know it, you'll be up to your eyeballs in food, medicine, fiber and who knows what else.  

Best of luck

Hey,my sunchokes have this too.
I wasn't worried about the rootd, but my wife is scared to feed them to the bunnies.
The  powdery mildew and sometimes little black bugs means most if my sunchoke greens are going to waste.
Any experience feeding powdery mildew affected vegetation to animals?

I know this post is old but if anyone else is wondering about powdery mildew on their Jerusalem artichokes I've been dealing with this issue for a few years and have a few pieces of advice:
So you absolutely do NOT want to compost ANYTHING with powdery mildew on it, unless you want it to spread to everything! It is a fungus after all and it does spread through microscopic spores. I have used the tubers with no problems, especially if you wash them in 140 degree F (at that temp most fungus dies). I would NOT give the plants to any animals, it would be just like feeding them mold ( especially since mildew IS mold!) And obviously don't utilize the plants as mulch either. Unfortunately, there isn't anyway to get rid of it once the plant is infected, however you can keep it from spreading or better yet, keep it from starting with Neem Oil. I try to spray it especially on the lower leaves weekly, especially before and after rain. The dead plants should either be thrown in the garbage or yard waste bin or preferably burned. This year I've been successful at keeping it at bay on my Sunchokes but I have had a small outbreak on my squash, but I have been able to keep it pretty well contained.

[quote=J Barnett]I know this post is old but if anyone else is wondering about powdery mildew on their Jerusalem artichokes I've been dealing with this issue for a few years and have a few pieces of advice:
So you absolutely do NOT want to compost ANYTHING with powdery mildew on it, unless you want it to spread to everything! It is a fungus after all and it does spread through microscopic spores. I have used the tubers with no problems, especially if you wash them in 140 degree F (at that temp most fungus dies). I would NOT give the plants to any animals, it would be just like feeding them mold ( especially since mildew IS mold!) And obviously don't utilize the plants as mulch either. Unfortunately, there isn't anyway to get rid of it once the plant is infected, however you can keep it from spreading or better yet, keep it from starting with Neem Oil. I try to spray it especially on the lower leaves weekly, especially before and after rain. The dead plants should either be thrown in the garbage or yard waste bin or preferably burned. This year I've been successful at keeping it at bay on my Sunchokes but I have had a small outbreak on my squash, but I have been able to keep it pretty well contained.[/quote]

Welcome to Permies J!