How to Store Sunchokes AKA Jerusalem Artichokes for the Winter 

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Me too! 11 years and two weeks!

Hi, do you need to water the bucket of jerusalem artichokes during storage? And do you need to put on a lid to cover the bucket?

***** slightly moist

***** Let me expand a little: as my garden was dug up to about 2 meters to get new topsoil. I had to clear my Jerusalem artichoke patch. Took them out of the soil and put them in plastic bags filled with sand. I moistened the sand only once I think and then put them in the cellar. These were rhizomes with or without a piece of plant still attached. About a year later I could bring them out again in the spring and put them back in the soil. They now (end oktober) tall plants and when i check they have a good developed rootsystem and I can already see some small and some big jerusalem artichokes

You can also buy some from Johnny's Select Seeds and i think strictly medicinal seeds sell yhem too.

Nematodes? They don't like a lot of organic material in the soil.

This is how we did it. We just dug down 2-3 feet and used the damp sand we found there. It's clean and insect free. I suppose it helps that I'm from MI so sand is abundant but they keep for a long time in a root cellar. Most were still harvest fresh into early summer.

Plus you need to keep them well below 50°F. That's the temp that triggers them into sprouting.

I had to put chicken wire around mine, as the chipmunks or squirrels dug up all my original bulbs (in 4 different planters) and ate them. Once I put the fencing up, they did fine. I'm looking forward to harvesting them in a month or two.

Never tried messing with them after they sprouted, but remember that it's 50°F that triggers them into sprouting. Try to keep them well below 50°F for storage.

Shut up hr karen.

Not artichoke. Sunchoke. More closely related to the sunflower than the artichoke.

Keep them well below 50°F as that's the temp that triggers sprouting. They overwinter in zone 3 so you can toss them in your freezer if you want.

Don't give up on them!! There's 5 ways to deal with the Inulin fiber that causes the gas. When it's converted into Fructose you lose that gas issue ... pardon the pun! 1) Ferment them just like sauerkraut, use the same recipe you'd use for kraut. Use them in making Kimchi. Refrigerator pickles work too, just give them more than a couple weeks to work. 2) Cook them with an acidic ingredient such as vinegar, citric acid, lemon or lime juice. We can most of ours as pickles and relishes. The vinegar pickle mixes through the canning process and shelf storage take all the snap, crackle and pop out of them! And they are better as pickles and relishes than cukes! 3) Cook them for several hours in a slow cooker recipe or with a roast. That's the way the Native Americans did them. They dug a pit, made a fire and when the coals were good and burnt down they'd cover them with dirt, layer on the 'chokes, cover them with more dirt and let them roast for most of the day. 4) Freeze them for at least a month, over winter is best if you live where the ground freezes solid and harvest them in the spring as soon as you can work the soil. You can also throw them in your freezer, blanched or unblanched, for a month or so. Hint - if you shred some for hash browns, put them in a cloth pouch and squeeze most of the liquid out of them. The fifth way takes dedication. I take an Inulin supplement daily for gut health to try to prevent colon cancer. When you take Inulin daily you can pig out on these suckers any time you want, any way you want!! Another ferment, I've made wine out of tuber broth and flower broth. The tuber wine was way stout! Too stout for a drinking wine, but it's great for a cooking wine. I like the flower broth wine straight or blended with fruit wines.

What an awesome and informative reply ! Thank you

I think they store best in cool temperatures (below 50°F). In warmth, they think it's spring and they can sprout.

You don't need to peel them-just scrub really well with the brush!

you can eat the skin unless it's a super knot

i live in Montana at 5250 feet elevation...we had -40 last January and all my sunchokes survived...plant in a sunny spot!

Yes, they survive the winters- I live in NJ and we had some low temp - 18 degrees last winter. I thought I dug all of the out last fall but the patch got bigger this spring! Even with deer devouring most of the foliage in early summer they recuperated and I had huge knobs this fall ...My third year of crop!

@@sofiasmith3767 I am worried cause I have a tiny yard (big around here) how are they now after 3 more years.

+averill williams Hi, I live in Minnesota, but I bought some sunchokes when I was in Houston last March to plant in my garden. (I hadn't seen any for sale in many years) There was a little bin of them in the produce section at the Kroger just south of Kingwood.. Hope this helps. We just had our first hard freeze last night, so I'm about to go dig some up. The plants got over 12 feet tall :)

+averill williams Groworganic.com also sells them! They are available for pre-order until this week but they are always high quality!