Topic: Jerusalem artichokes

[mormor]

I have just dug up a mountain of J artichokes and will NEVER have them again. I planted ten. Can I use the earth for anything useful or just leave it bare so I can get rid of the ones I missed? All help/ suggestions welcome!

[Tee Gee]

Can I use the earth for anything useful

Most anything what did you have in mind?

[small]

If you have left even the tiniest tuber, then they will reappear. The only way I cleared a patch was to build the pig run around it.  I'm intrigued though why you say never again - didn't you like the taste? We don't eat a huge number of them, but I do like the row I have as a windbreak (no pun intended!) and they don't spread particularly.

[Duke Ellington]

And do you like Jerusalem Artichokes?😏💨 💨 💨

[Beersmith]

J artichokes? Surely that is a spelling error. F artichokes perhaps?

[okra]

I have been told the only way to get rid is to dig out as soon as shoots appear.

[Paulh]

Just fork them out / pull off the shoots as they appear. Though if you had ten plants, that could be a hundred or so ...

I've grown them on various parts of my plot over the last few years (I treat them like dahlias really) and I can't remember any volunteers coming up in the second year.

And if they get too pushy, just fart in their general direction (see Monty Python and the Holy Grail)!

[Vinlander]

Haven't you heard of inulin? A starchy version of levulose (or laevulose)?
It's the latest wonder food - the most effective of the "soluble fibres" that are able to raise the health of your guts to what vegans drive themselves to neurosis to achieve.

Basically it is a sugar complex that you can't digest, so it ends up in your colon where the "friendly bacteria" go completely apeshit for it (I can't think of a more appropriate expression) and completely overrun the bacteria you don't want.

Unfortunately the side effect is gas.

I'm sure you've guessed by now that Jerusalem Artichokes are the most potent source known to mankind, with the most extreme side effects of any vegetable.

Basically, you either need to eat them in small doses  (extreme moderation is difficult since they are so delicious) or find ways to reduce the potency slightly. I recommend roasting them whole, long and slow around a fowl until they are wrinkly bags of delicious mush. Amazingly concentrated smoky sweet taste.

I have also heard good things about using winter savoury in JA stews and soups.

Never give up, never surrender - especially to convenience for its own sake. Add this to my signature - except there's no room...

Cheers.

[mormor]

I like them but the amount that came up was enormous. We couldn’t possibly eat so many, the compost couldn’t take so many and we don’t have pigs - unfortunately - as it’s an allotment. So some went to the tip where they are made into compost. And I am sure I didn’t get them all up!  What to have instead?  Maybe climbing beans so I could easily see the artichokes that come up?

[Paulines7]

Did someone say they didn't spread?  Mine come up all over the place and I am forever digging them out.  They have spread into the lawn and flower beds; how I wish I had never planted them.  The are a blooming nuisance. 

I suppose how they grow and increase depends on the soil type.  My soil is very light and they obviously like that whereas they may have more difficulty spreading where there is clay.   

[Robert_Brenchley]

They're not hard to get rid of. Dig out what you can, then give them a few weeks. Dig out everything that's appeared, and that's the end of them. Then plant tender veg on the same spot.