I’d read you could transplant them in the fall, after they’ve died back a bit but before the ground freezes. I finally dug a few out of two local groves and it turns out they’re different varieties! My neighbor gave me the okay to plant them (I’ve been helping him replace his lawn with local plants, and we’re emphasizing local food plants in the back). I know they can take over a space a bit, but he seems excited at the idea. He has just about the only bees I’ve seen in our neighborhood, so he’s happy to give them more flowers. And if the sunchokes go too crazy I have a friend who knows how to cook them.
Tucked one in to a sunny spot where someone clearcut along a bike path too. Maybe it’ll take off. I’ve been thinking about trying a little guerilla forest gardening along the path, perhaps starting with edible mushrooms next. I guess they make plugs - you drill holes in dead logs, tuck the mushroom plug in, and you get mushrooms. We’ll see.
Those red ones look similar to the ‘Red Fuseau’ variety of which we have a patch or two. They’re incredibly hardy - I’ve tossed ones that had gone soft in the cellar out into the cold of winter just to find a new patch growing where a small rodent had pulled it into contact with the ground.
They’re upper soil profile tubers, so if there happens to be a boundary that they need to have, you can drive 6" metal edging into the ground around the patch. Voles and mice love them though, so if you’re using stick mulch or wood chips in the planting area be prepared to do some relocating in the spring. Another US native tuber that did pretty well for us as a companion to sunchokes was groundnut (Apios americana), which will climb the sunchokes stalks without inhibiting them. They’ll do better planted on the southern exposure of the sunchoke patch than the middle or northern edge.
That’s really great information, thank you! I’ll check out groundnut next
You’re very welcome! Two things - their flowers look like Georgia O’Keefe paintings and we’ve been happy with what we’ve received from FedCo. I just like mentioning them because they’re a worker owned co-op and they’ve sent us quality plants.
First question my SO asked after we looked up ground nuts was where to get them. You had us at “worker owned co-op” and “quality plants”
Awww those purplish ones are so pretty! Makes me regret planting the first random variety I came across lol. They will definitely form an enormous thicket, critters love it!
