Comments on: Big Jerusalem Artichokes

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:43:26 +0000

My neighbor 3 feet to the west of my community plot grows these. In my opinion, they are a very effective sunblock. I try to grow things that don’t need late summer light at that side of my plot. And in the meantime I try my best to dig deep and pull the entire plant when I weed the shots in my plot. I haven’t gotten around to tasting them yet. They just annoy me.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:52:29 +0000

I’ve had them for a few years now, and they are a lot of work in the spring to chase after all the volunteers. They do tend to come up in inconvenient places, like nearby beds, in paths and between paving stones. Their tendency is to want to spread a bit. When the time comes to get rid of them, I’m sure I’ll be able to, but I do think it’ll be a lot of work and probably take more than one year.

I think in many ways it depends on how big a garden you have. I have one that’s a little bigger than what makes it possible to tend every little piece of it regularly, so I really don’t have the time to come back every few days and hunt for more Jerusalem Artichokes.

Without fertilizer mine usually grow to about 2m or 6ft, sometimes 8ft. My neighbor’s grew last year to almost twice that. Whatever happens, I think he’s going to have a much harder time than me getting rid of them.

By: Robert Brenchley

Robert Brenchley — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:38:37 +0000

They’re not hard to get rid of. Dig out all you can, leave them till the rest show, and dig them out individually. ~Mine get to about 8-10 feet then collapse all over everything. I’ve never had problems with them spreading.

By: rainman

rainman — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:37:10 +0000

I planted some of these a year or so ago, on the edge of one of my raised beds. They got to 8 or 10 feet without any fertilisers! And I’ve spent the last year digging up enthusiastic little shoots that grow in the most inconvenient places – like the lawn. (I did remove all of the tubers after the main crop – so I thought).

I suspect I will have them forever.

By: Gradually Greener

Gradually Greener — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:02:00 +0000

Oh, it’s hard not to feel just a little bit of schadenfreude with someone like that.