Jerusalem Artichokes

[Chantal]

I have a reasonably large bed of Jerusalem artichokes (about 25ft x 3ft) which is sited in the middle of one of my plots. I inherited this and as I love the artichokes and have managed to keep the spread under control, I'm happy with it; except for the shadow it casts over part of the plot when the plants reach 6ft or more. It puts one bed in complete shade from around 3pm which restricts what I can grow there.

I was told this weekend that it's best to top them out at around 3-4ft as it encourages growth and stops them blowing over in the autumn. Is this right? I'm hoping it is at it would sort out the shade problem, but I don't want to damage the crop.

Does anyone know?

Thanks

[Beryl]

I used to grow them some years back now Chantel and in October-November always cut them down to about 18" just enough so you know where to dig them in the winter. It doesn't affect the crop at all.

Beryl.

[Chantal]

Hmm, that's awfully late. I was hoping I could keep them down to under 4ft all summer.

Thanks anyway Beryl.

[richard p]

with so many, why not prune the first 4 foot or so and see what happens?

[Chantal]

That's worthy of consideration. Thanks

[alan refail]

Chantal

I like your definition of "reasonably large". It's bigger than mine and I thought that was a bit of a monster. Mine runs North-South so shading is not too much of a problem - though I find I am growing things further and further away from it on the East side.

As for reducing the height, I never bother as I quite like the late flowers, but it does get to 8-9 feet. Joy Larckom's advice is to take out the tops in mid-summer to about 5-6 feet. I wonder whether cutting to 4 feet would affect them any differently. I'm sure you're wise to give it a try on some of the bed. Cutting down seriously needs to be in the autumn when the stems are dying anyway.

Whatever you do, from the amount your bed must produce, you are sure to have masses of tubers.

Alan

[Chantal]

Thanks Alan, yes I do get masses of tubers. I tried to dig a lot more out last year and gave bagfuls to both Piglet and Tigger. However, despite us digging up every artichoke in sight, the patch is more dense than ever. It's a good job I like them; I'd never tried them before I inherited this lot.

I've decided I'm going to try graduated pruning and see what difference it makes. I'll start at 3ft at one end and go up to full height at the other. I'll have enough tubers whatever I do.

I'll let you all know the result.

Thanks again everyone.

[Tigger]

I've been watching this to see what I should do too, so I'll try the same as you Chantal and it will give us a comparator.

[Johnboy]

Hi Chantal,
I think you will find that just so long as there are some leaves on the stalks I feel that to cut them back could actually be beneficial.
I appreciate that Alan likes the late flowers but if you are not bothered about flowers them the plant is expending energy to go up to flower and that energy could well be directed to the crop. If you were to top them out at 4ft and there are some leaves I feel that you will not do any harm. I feel that by now the crop is formed and if growth is concentrated to the crop so much the better. When the leaves have finally dropped you can reduce as Beryl says leaving just sufficient for markers.
JB.

[Chantal]

I'm far too short to really notice the flowers they are around 4ft over my head most years. What's more, they're nothing much to look at even if I do crane my neck.

As they usually grow straight with no sideshoots, I'm wondering if cutting them back will make them bush out. There's not a lot of space for them to do this as they are very dense.