I have a patch that is ancient. I think my father put it in after WW2. Just dig - till up a 10 X 10 area, rake out the roots, etc. Shove in an artichoke tuber every foot or so, and you got em forever. In the sunflower family, but you eat the root ( tubers ). Interesting plant. Not an artichoke, and not from Jerusalem.

I grow them... they do very poorly in my dry sand.
when I brought the first batch in, they all died...

At my previous house, I planted them in clay down by the water bank... I was able to dig an entire 5 gallon bucket full from a single plant!

I may have a trick to help them grow better... I had one plant in a small 2 gallon nursery pot... with an apios americana vine. That pot was positively filled with sun choke tubers! Out in the garden... very few... again.

The problem I keep having with sunchokes... no way to keep the tubers fresh after digging... I usually store them in a container of sand... but it's not a great solution.

What do you do about gas?

I can only eat them occasionally, because my belly bloats up.
Otherwise, they seem like a great survival food.

I would love to have a start of Jerusalem Artichokes if they can survive in a fairly dry, very hot Texas summer. I can trade Apios Americana.

If you plant in clay soil... Sun chokes should grow...
I can barely keep any alive in the bottomless white sand.

Some supermarkets carry sunchokes... Or maybe try the farmers market?

I've grown them. They grow well here even tho' the soil is not that great. I grew them as a novelty just to try it, and didn't like them all that much. I would grow them for the flowers if they bloomed earlier. Once you plant them, it takes several years of pulling them up to get rid of 'em.

I'd love to grow Jerusalem artichokes because I find them delicious but my stomach can't handle them. I won't go into too many details but if I have even a small amount, I'll have to be leapfrogging between toilets for the next days.

We grew the Jerusalem Artichokes for many years in zone 3-4 (Cadillac, Michigan) in very sandy soil. They were prolific! I agree with Bob - very invaisive.

As a native edible.. Hardly invasive...

If you are in a wet climate, or have moist soil, these sunflowers may be happy and produce a lot of tubers... But... Still not "very invasive".

When I was living in a frost pocket with water banks on the slopes, I was lucky enough to dig 5 gallons of tubers from one plant...

Where I garden now?
First time I planted them... Lost the entire planting.
Still can barely keep any alive.

They weren't really invasive -- they didn't spread that much. Tenacious might be a better word ;)

A tv episode with some good info regarding growing and cooking sun chokes.
https://www.pbs.org/video/a-ch...

I am pulling and tossing chokes because they are coming up where I don't want them , would be glad to share with others
send me a tree-mail if you want a few to start

I used to grow them, my kids didn't like them, but I do. However I don't have the space anymore.

zxcvbob said:I've grown them. They grow well here even tho' the soil is not that great. I grew them as a novelty just to try it, and didn't like them all that much. I would grow them for the flowers if they bloomed earlier. Once you plant them, it takes several years of pulling them up to get rid of 'em.

Anyone who thinks Jerusalem artichokes are invasive, should do battle with Wisteria. An entity in itself. The only way to rid yourself of Wisteria, is to move to a different town. The flowers however are truly beautiful. The mother wisteria on my property has a 10 inch trunk. Must be a few 100 years old. I know the homes here go back to the 1800s, and the Wisteria was here before they were built. I give it squatters rights.