Jerusalem artichoke seedlings

[bill]

For a few years, I was very interested in breeding new H. tuberosus varieties, but I lost interest as I found that I just don’t like eating them very much. Inspired by the work that I’ve seen other people doing with this crop, I’ve undertaken a rapprochement with the fartichoke. Our Jerusalem artichoke breeding project is small and likely to remain so, but I’ve begun to dig out some of the mess of tubers and grow some new plants from seed. This is one of them:

It is still quite small, but it is an interesting plant with very dwarf characteristics. Short sunchokes are ideal here, because the wind tends to knock down the tall ones before they can flower.

[system]

I grew some seedlings a few years ago but didn’t go on with it as all my seedlings turned out no different from the parents - oh, and it helped that my newly planted seeds were eaten by mice last year. I am giving up growing them altogether now as I really don’t like eating them.

[bill]

Here’s an interesting sunchoke seedling with both a very bushy stem and very dark axils. I wonder if the axils indicate anything about tuber coloration.