How to plant our first Jerusalem Artichoke

We bought a couple pounds of Jerusalem Artichokes yesterday and I stoked! I'm ready to start throwing it in the ground. I'm thinking one in a 5 gallon bucket in my room for decoration, a few out by where the grey water drains, a few more somewhere else in the garden, and maybe some way out in the back of the place. She on the other hand is being more restrained. She's never planted the stuff before and she does have good reason to be concerned. We live of top of alkaline soil that is mostly sand and gravel, we can expect frost until early June, and our place can be quite adept at killing things.

So what do you say? Don't worry about the frost? Can be plant them in little 8 ounce plastic drinking glasses until June? Wet area? Dry area? 5 gallon bucket? I'm planning on shooting video of this.

ive heard that you can put the tubers in the ground any time of year so long as you can work the soil, if youre worried, plant some now in one place, plant some more in another month or so, though im sure theyll probably be just fine anyway

Hi Devon

I've only just seen your post - just a word of caution! Jerusalem Artichokes can become very invasive if you're not careful. Planting them in many different spots may not be a good policy. Sorry if this is a late response - I've been away - but thought I'd mention it. You may not mind if you love them! Try googling "jerusalem artichokes invasive" and see what comes up.

Good points: can make a good wind-break for other plants as they grow tall; and here's a good recipe: parboil whole artichokes, peel, roll lightly in flour, then in beaten seasoned egg, and then sesame seeds. Bake in the oven. VERY yummy.

I do know they are invasive in nature. I'm kind of counting on it. I have 20 acres of sulfur cinquefoil on sand and gravel. I see it as a way to rapidly build up organic mater in the soil and maintain soil water content. Eating the stuff and being surrounded with 9 foot flowers is just a nice plus. I just hope it will grow in our borderline desert.

Hi Yone' (so sorry I got the name wrong)

I'm so glad! I hope they succeed. They produce a lot of top growth so it should be ideal.

Reminds me of the micuna bean (or velvet bean). There's bean a project to grow these in Central or South America as they create soil, so are used on upland areas which have been eroded after conventional agriculture caused run-off. I'm not sure they're tremendously tasty, though they are nutritious (I remember a TV programme about them which showed them being ground and used in bread). They were growing in the most unpromising places. Just found a link: http://www.new-ag.info/01-6/focuson/focuson8.html. I wonder what their frost tolerance is, but I bet they are good even if not frost-hardy as they would wilt down and rot at the end of the season.

Anyway, good luck with the artichokes!

The ones in my bucket in my room are 9&1/2 inches high after 6 days of growing. Now it just a question of what the ones outside will do.