What did you do in the garden today?

[jerryse]

I have been watching some YouTube videos on the Jerusalem Artichokes plants. Looks interesting to me. Super easy to grow and very hardy even in my zone 3b. I understand you have to grow them from tubers. I went to my local big box stores and nobody carries them.

Does anybody here grow Jerusalem Artichokes? Would love to hear what you think about them. Also, any suggestions as to where I could best order some tubers to get started? Thanks.

Plants look like small sunflower plants....

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You eat the tubers....

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They grow wild here. I used to grow Fusu variety. Larger tubers than the local wild ones. A crop I tried only to find out they grew wild here. Yes they are gassy.

 

[jerryse]

Windy and cold here. Wind chills may reach -40 in the next few days.

 

[fuzzi]

My brother is a builder. I asked him what brand of window he thought was the best. He said Pella.

I asked my plumber for his recommendation for a faucet. He said Delta is his favorite, because he can get replacement parts easily, and they last longer than other brands.

Over the last few years I have replaced the cheap faucets that the previous owner put in the bathrooms and kitchen with Delta washerless single handle models. I am happy.

 

[BDutch]

OK. Dear Wife does most of the grocery shopping for us. I have never seen Jerusalem Artichokes at our local stores, but again, it's not something that I would have been looking to buy until now. Thought maybe you knew where to buy them at the stores.

Here only the organic food shop sells them.

 

[Molpet]

I had not considered that they could be purchased in a store - probably in the vegetable section? I'll have to check into that. From what I understand, you just need one eye off the tuber to grow a new plant, and there are many eyes on each tuber.

From what I understand, the Jerusalem Artichokes can be very invasive, so it's best to grow them away from your main garden or in big pots. I'm thinking of making a 4X4 raised bed just for a patch of them.

Farmers market had some here

 

[WthrLady]

a

-8' F right now, says tonight will "feel" like -42'F tonight. WTHeck! We live in southern IA not the North Pole. Hopefully this means an early spring...

lready -18F with a chill of -40 here in Nebraska so...

 

[Acre4Me]

do you (or anyone else, of course!) have a suggestion for melon for me? I want something sweet. Parthenocarpic

I’ll look in my notes. We did use black plastic and they loved it. Direct seeded. Do no remember any parthenocarpic ones though.

 

[akroberts1085]

Merriweather - the grand dame of the coop has passed away
Age 9 years, 6 months, and 8 days
She lived an amazing life and outlived all of her grand-children and even the family dog.
She was sweet and pampered to the end and will be greatly missed.

==========
High temp tomorrow will be -4F and high temp on Sunday will be -7F.
Chill temp of -50F. Lord love a duck.

So sad to hear about your grand dame.

 

[akroberts1085]

So unfortunately I wasn't able to get the garden started. It's been too cold here.

 

[CNJ]

I got another idea and I think it will work. I kept putting off setting up my 4 Dutch buckets which I bought from Amazon last year. I kept thinking, I needed to pick up a plank and some cement blocks to make a plant stand, but all I have to do is set the Dutch buckets on the reservoir tank and I could join any number of totes together and run just one pump on a timer set to come on for 30 minutes 3 times a day. I also need a float stick inside a 1-inch pvc pipe, and a refill hole.