sunchokes, yacón, and oca
Steve Marak (Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:22:09 PDT)

Dennis,

The list of plants I truly regret having planted in my yard is fairly
small, but if sunchokes aren't at the top, they're very close.

On an old "Victory Garden", I once heard Roger Swain advise that at the
end of the growing season, you should dig every single last sunchoke
tuber, large and small, that you can find, which will mean that you miss
just enough to ensure an equal sized crop the next year. I think he was
too optimistic. And be sure to deadhead - without seeds, they're merely
impossible to eradicate. Of course that's NW Arkansas - may be different
in your area.

By comparison, some of our other native thugs, such as Campsis radicans,
are very charming garden plants.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Kramb <dkramb@badbear.com>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Fri, Apr 1, 2011 4:42 pm
Subject: [pbs] sunchokes, yacón, and oca

I'm preparing my vegetable garden this year and decided to try sunchokes,
aka: jerusalem artichokes. Obviously a geophyte, I'm wondering what
experiences people on the PBS list have with different varieties & flavors
of this plant. I ended up buying some tubers from a small farm in North
Carolina. They're not any particular named variety... just listed as
heirloom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunchoke/

-- Steve Marak
-- samarak@gizmoworks.com