Jeruselum Artichokes as green manure

20 years ago

Hey All,

Well I'm starting the wind down after my first season in our new home. My early tomatoes suffered their final pick today.

Too many table varieties grown this year! So what is everyones pick for an early processing variety?

Preferably determinate as I like to do all my canning and drying in a job lot.

Onto message thread!

I grew jeruselum artichokes for the first time this year. What monsters! In clay, up against a western wall with almost no water they are now 3+m high and look like trees.

I figure the green manure I get from the tops will be great for mulch and the tubers will break the ground up so I don't need to work it so much. Does anyone know the best time to cut the tops for green manure and still get a good tuber harvest?

Its top of my list now for remediating very difficult locations. I'll just have to see how persistant the tubers are in the follow up years!

BTW, My pick for winter green manure is a mix of wheat and field peas, or just broad beans as these three plants are about the only things that grow in Canberra in our freezing winters! Can anyone suggest any others for nitrogen fixation that tolerate temps down to -7c.

Cheers

Karl

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Comments (3)

Raymondo
20 years ago
Hi Karl,
I think you've got just about the best choice for winter green manure crops. I use peas, bought in bulk, along with broad beans and common beans, from an Indian grocer whenever I visit Sydney.
I haven't tried Jerusalem artichokes as a green manure crop, only for eating. I harvest in autumn, anytime after flowers die, so I guess you could cut the tops off as soon as the flowers look spent. Glad to here they're good soil remediators. I'll make more use of them for that purpose.
Jamus_S
20 years ago
Hi Karl, not a bad idea *except*! Jerusalem artichokes multiply like crazy. I started with a couple, the following year I had a big patch, this year I have a forest of them! I'm not complaining, beautiful plant. I'm quite sure I'll never be without them again, a very successful plant. If you did decide you wanted to get rid of them from an area, to grow something else for instance, it'd just be a matter of digging out as many as you can find then waiting until the spring and grub them out as they emerge. Green manure plants are commonly annuals which naturally die off and leave an area free for other crops. Having said that, experimentation is the key to rewarding gardening.
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Joseph Dupont
4 years ago
I just yanked out hundreds of pounts of jerusalum artichokes and ground them up0 with my lawn mower. I have no doubt tht they will grow back next spring but the soil will be improved. I had them growing around current and goose berry bushes. so now in early june the bushes full of green berries will have full sun and decomposing greens. I yanked the artichokes out which aeroated the soil.. I think it makes sense. I dont know how they spread so quickly.