[Pil-pc-oceania] Jerusalem artichokes underneath fruit and nuttrees

[permaculture at apollobay.org.au]

Hi Dan

As Graeme mentioned, the sunchokes do impede root growth of young trees,
but as you've planted your trees on top of the swales, I don't think
planting sunchokes at the base would impede on them, your swales were
pretty high from memory...  What's the rootstock of the fruit trees?
cheers
Fern


Original Message:
-----------------
From: Graeme George - Earthcare Permaculture earthcarepc at virtual.net.au
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:16:06 +1000
To: pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org
Subject: Re: [Pil-pc-oceania] Jerusalem artichokes underneath fruit and
nuttrees


G'day Dan

I have patches of 2 varieties of /Helianthos tuberosum/ (which are 
better called Sunroots or Sunchokes). They do create dense shade and 
nothing else grows under them until they start to die back, when grassy 
weeds start to come back again. I wouldn't put them too close to young 
fruit trees though - they can reach 2 metres by mid-summer and will 
impede the establishment of your young trees through root competition 
and shade. If you plan to harvest the tubers you wouldn't want to be 
digging around young tree roots either. They will spread but you can 
slash any growth getting too near your trees and use the tops as animal 
feed or mulch.

BTW the two varieties I gave Di to try are Dave's Shrine (long thin 
ones) and a blocky mauve skinned one that I've picked up in the Yarra 
Valley, which I haven't found a name for.
 
Cheers

Graeme

PS. I've deleted the extraneous material from your posting that has 
nothing to do with the topic of your email. I've noticed a few other 
postings in recent days with similar irrelevant material hanging off 
their emails. A few of us would appreciate some snipping being done 
before posting. Try blocking unwanted text with the cursor and pressing 
the delete button! It works a treat.

Dan Palmer wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> We're thinking of planting Jerusalem artichokes at the base of our (3m 
> wide) swale mounds as part of our strategy to keep out the cooch and 
> other grasses. I know they can become a bit rampant and was wondering 
> if anyone had experience with using them in this way.
>
> Best,
> Dan
>



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