[Pil-pc-oceania] Jerusalem artichokes underneath fruit and nut trees

[jedd]

On Fri, 8 Jun 2007, Dan Palmer wrote:
> 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.

 Hi Dan,

 Thanks for sending me 288 lines of irrelevant material.  I don't get
 the digest posting -- so it was particularly handy to see all those
 messages all over again.  If you find the format of my message
 easy to read, consider why.

 JA's spread by tuber.  Two consequences - you need to dig them
 up to harvest them (disturbing any other plant's roots in the
 vicinity) and they will slowly encroach on any neighbours.  They're
 notoriously hard things to find every last one of, particularly
 when planted en masse.

 Like sunflowers, they're allelotrophic (sp?) so can suppress their
 neighbours.  This may, as you've observed, work with couch and
 other grasses but for their frost sensitivity.  If the goal is to find
 a perennial border that will suppress grasses, you'd need to be
 a bit more forthcoming on your climate.

 Also note that it's quite easy to have too many JA's, all the
 more so if you're prone to windy reactions to some foods.  I think
 the polite way they refer to this as a foodstuff is 'introduce it
 slowly into the diet'.  Good pig food, though, apparently .. with
 added benefit that they'll happily root around and find every
 last piece in the ground, albeit ripping up the roots of your fruit
 trees (and probably de-barking them) at the same time.

 If you're interested, I've just popped up some pics that show
 the growth rate of these things in my part of the world (35S,
 CZ 9b, HZ 7).  30 small tubers planted in two rows as shown,
 interplanted with peanuts, in 2 x 3m plot.  Minimal irrigation,
 one of the few plants I have that breeze through 48C days.

 (Robyn - far left of pic 2 you can see my erstwhile Horseradish ;(

 At planting : 
 http://www.dingogully.com.au/temp/20070608pc/JA-20060926-planting.jpg

 At 6 weeks :
 http://www.dingogully.com.au/temp/20070608pc/JA-20061110-45days.jpg

 At maturity (6 months):
 http://www.dingogully.com.au/temp/20070608pc/JA-20070312-mature.jpg

 Jedd.