IME they are invasive. I would be grateful if deer would eat them. Instead they eat my tomatoes, leaves and green fruits and all.

I don't think they attract deer but they do spread like wild fire. Invading and taking over the wild raspberry patch I have and that takes some.

Woodchucks would eat some but only the lower leaves - some of these plants get over 6-7ft.

To me the Jerusalem Artichokes taste kind of nutty but extremely gassy when eaten raw. I would stick with real potatoes.

Concur: Jerusalem artichokes are practically indestructable. The flowers are quite pretty and some folks like the tubers. To me they have a residual iodine taste. On the other hand it is an ideal survival food, once established they require very little and are productive.

For a survival food (plant) I prefer the day lily. Every part of the day lily is edible (at diff stages), requires no care, and will grow in poor soil.

I wouldn't try the leaves of the Jerusalem artichokes but yea the flowers are qhite abundant. I understand they do make good border barriers.

Mine escaped from a pot I had them in and I have been trying to get rid of them for the last 4yrs now.

I find them to be bomb proof. I like to bake them in with potatoes or sweet potatoes in the winter time. I'll just step out into the back yard and dig up a few handful of tubers, wash them off and toss them in to my recipes. They taste similar to water chestnuts. I've heard that they can cause one to be gassy, but I haven't noticed. As far as being invasive...you'd better like them. You won't be able to dig out all of the tubers and they multiply like crazy. Not only do they spread via tubers, but they also go to seed. no worries, as they are easy to recognize when they germinate and start growing and are easy to pull prior to forming tubers. The variety I have grows close to ten feet tall. The flowers are attractive in the fall, but because of the height of the plants they can fall over and be unsightly.

Thanks to all. I'm always looking for something new, but I think I will stick with potatoes.

They can become a nuisance if allowed to have open ground. Keep them in a tall raised bed and they are fairly easy to contain. I've only had about one or two volunteers yearly that pop up outside the bed and they are quickly dispatched via weed whip (I cut the flowers off once they start to fade, there's no point in leaving them on so have never had an issue with unwanted seedlings). One plant gives a substantial yield so you only really need a couple plants if you just want to try them out. I wouldn't say they are a substitute for potatoes though since they have their own flavor/texture plus they have their own harvest window (late fall through early spring).

Rodney

They are good if you have space. I had a nice bed in the back of my property that was destroyed by deer. So they are destructible. And the soil was the poorest sand you could imagine, with only 8 inches of wood chips as fertilizer, and they were 800 ft from the hose, so no water either, but they were good while they lasted and I think they are a fine vegetable to roast in the oven.

They do contain the fermentable fiber inulin, which does have numerous medical benefits but creates gas in people with a less developed gut flora. you can buy inulin pills, or grow radicchio, root chicory, jicama, cardoon, garlic or sunchokes. I now grow radicchio, chicory, garlic and cardoon, plus I eat dandelions occasionally.

Mine did not have open ground but as mentioned invaded a very thick wild raspberry patch and took over. They began in pots and yes they do have multiple flowers, as many as 5 or 6 per stalk I think. I have trying to pull them before they blossom for the last 3-4 yrs now.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for easy to grow plants and flowers. I have oregano, tomatoes, lettuce, and other plants which seem to seed themselves which I don't mind at all. But sun chokes are very tall and shade other plants.

I've been growing them for around 8 years or so now. Mostly as a novelty more so than a food. Never had them try to take over my yard and have never had them shade other plants because they were planted in the right place where they wouldn't shade anything to begin with.

Rodney

I can assure you I didn't go into the wild raspberry thicket to plant anything AND have difficulty going in to manually remove them.