Anyone tried selections of Jerusalem artichoke in the South?

12 years ago

There are some named and presumably better selections offered from northern suppliers, where Jerusalem artichoke is apparently better known.

Has anyone tried them in the hot south?

Has anyone tried the named selections at all?

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Comments (6)

User
12 years ago
If you have enough land plant it as a border plant (edge of a forest/tree area).

In the South it's pretty invasive...but all that really means is the place you put it is the place you're going to have it for half past forever.

It's not something you want to put in mixed use garden beds, it does well on it's own somewhere you can leave it alone and let it spread.
User
12 years ago
Oh yeah, variety selection...

Luckily, since the 70s/80s most varieties out there are rather disease resistant. They're susceptible to mildews and rusts, but even in my part of the South (NC) they do quite well.

I don't know of any especially heat-tolerant variety, though that's not much of an issue unless you live in the extreme South (lower 1/4 or so).
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I posted this quote several years ago when a poster named "Slashie" (I think...) had a posting going on JAs. The plants contain a substance called inulin, which cannot be broken down by the human digestive system, which can cause flatulence and, in some cases, gastric pain. Gerard's Herbal, printed in 1621, quotes the English planter John Goodyer on Jerusalem artichokes: "which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men." Inulin is a carbohydrate which has to be broken down to fructose and then conversted to glucose. From some of the references I have seen (I'm not a medical professional...) this can be beneficial for diabetics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inulin I bought some tubers one year from Gurney's and planted them in a cinderblock box so they couldn't escape and they have created a nice stand in the backyard near the alley. They are like tall, small sunflowers. Rather weedy looking though but I refuse to cut them down. I dug some up once and they spoiled quickly on the counter. Very thin skins. It is said not to boil them as they will become mush but rather to steam or bake them. I've never eaten them. Guess I should try them again.
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Larry, according to George that is only a problem when they are cooked. LOL After he said that, he posted later that he now boils them and pours off the water and replaces it and boils again. As for me, I will just eat them raw. I just left mine in the ground last year. They are between the end of a raised bed and the fence and nothing else will grow there, but the JA don't seem to mind. If I were going to order them, I would wait until the weather was warmer. While they do fine underground in cold weather, the cold can hurt them when they aren't in the ground. George was kind enough to send me some when I was doing the seed swap one year, and after spending a very, very, cold day in the mailbox, some kind of turned to mush. I sent out the best but I wasn't sure that any had survived but I planted some of the questionable ones in my garden and they have survived.
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Comments (18)
There's a wonderful story -- purportedly true -- about the French Resistance movement and artichokes. Supposedly, a group of German soldiers "commandeered" a French farmhouse and ordered the family to prepare them the finest dinner they could. The farmer's wife had little choice but to serve them something, but her act of silent rebellion was to smile nicely ... and serve them barely cooked artichokes, telling them they were the most prized dish in the region. Then watching (I'm sure with suppressed delight and satisfaction) as the soldiers struggled mightily to chew the leaves and chokes. I love artichokes (especially the baby ones, done as Bill says -- halved or even quartered if large enough, then I briefly braise in olive oil to brown them slightly, then add lemon or balsamic vinegar and some water or white wine, cover the saute pan, and steam until tender), but cannot imagine how they could be grown in our climate. You see fields of them in California, where most of the ones you see in stores come from.
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fusion_power
12 years ago
Johnny's sells a variety that does pretty well here in Alabama. As noted above, it is major invasive. But I found that 2 years of mowing it to the ground stops it cold.

DarJones
gonebananas_gw
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks both.

I've grown JA in central SC but they were just tubers I picked up in a grocery store I believe (it was long ago). I remember the annual resprouting!

I'm glad to hear the ones from JSS (obviously far northern) still do OK in the south. I'd love to grow less-knobby ones.

I have (somewhere buried away) an old recipe a church used for artichoke pickles for fund raising and I still remember them as wonderful tasting and want to make some.

I am going to experiment with a few named selections from northern suppliers, half in good soil in 25-gallon pots and half in my lousy sand of the garden plot.
cindy_eatonton
12 years ago
I can't tell you the varieties I have (one from a friend and one from the farmer's market), but here in middle GA they grow like mad and spread everywhere. Just like horseradish - both of which I planted after thinking "how cool". The deer especially like the sunchokes and mow them regularly and they spring back up each time. Some are now about 12 feet tall... Definitely plant them where you don't care if they spread.

Our deer don't seem to eat horseradish. :(

Cindy
gonebananas_gw
Original Author
12 years ago
I thought it was too hot here for horseradish. I may have to try that too.

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Anyone tried selections of Jerusalem artichoke in the South?

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Anyone tried selections of Jerusalem artichoke in the South?

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