Thanks for the input belgianpup. I had one year olds growing last year here while we in a drought and they grew huge but I didn't care for them as I should during the winter so I'm pretty sure they are dead. Live and learn I guess. I'm going to give them one more shot this year. It's suppose to be a cooler summer this year and I'm starting off with two year plants this time. I think I'll plant two where I had them last year and two in containers and see how it goes.

I've successfully grown jerusalem artichokes in several types of containers. They are very cold hardy, so you can just leave them outside for the winter, and they should do fine. In 10 gallon pots I got quite filled pots, with a solid mat of artichokes. In a 25 gallon pot I found that the plant produced no more top growth, but made better shaped, and more artichokes. These are an easy container plant as long as you keep them watered, and provide some fertilizer periodically. I also found that in containers I did not have the problems with the plants bending in the wind that I do with some of the plants in the ground. Enjoy growing them! By the way, there are several blogs detailing container gardening of jerusalem artichokes, including some with good pictures of the pots at various stages. Renais

What an excellent thread. Thanks to everyone who has been here before me. Gophers rule here, so my artichokes are planted in raised (really really raised at 2' off the ground) beds with gopher wire on the ground under the whole bed. For me the whole point of growing my own artichokes is to get them when they are young and small and I can steam 3-4 of them for myself....yum. Here are my questions: In my Zone 8b, should I cut the whole plant all the way to the ground about now, or just the old blooming stalks? I just went out today and pulled out all of the dead and dying leaves from the outside and there are still a lot of healthy primary plants or crowns in there. Clearly this bed is overcrowded. Should I try to dig the whole (please please please say "no") plants out and reduce them in size, or can I just take the pups off of the outside (oh that would be sooooooo much easier). Any help would be appreciated. Susan

I set my plants out well before last frost, as mentioned in a previous discussion. You can either plant them out when it looks like night temps will stay above freezing, or near enough that covering them at night will work. Or keep them in pots and put them out during 35+ð days and bring them in when it looks to be getting too cold at night. 200 hours isn't that long, just over a week if day and night temps are below 50, maybe 2 weeks if only getting the night temps. I second what Planatus said about vernalizing, it refers only to the plants, not the seeds. Some other info I've gleaned from my trials (and errors) growing these beauties is that the summer solistice triggers the bloom. That means getting the plants to good size before then. To do that you need to give them reasonable fertilizer early on, and remember to keep them fairly moist as spring turns into summer. That second part might be easier for you than me if you have that heavy clay. Good luck, I had about 10 chokes off of 2 plants last year! Now that reminds me I probably do need to order seeds, darn it.