Jerusalem Artichoke tubers in pots?

[organic]

Hey folks. Today I pulled up a few jerusalem artichokes, just to see, and they have all started sprouting (no surprise there then).

I'm assuming they won't be much cop for eating now, but in about 2 minutes of taking my time I had about 15 tubers from a single fork of soil.
That got me thinking...


Is it possible to pot the tubers (I've got a few 6" deep, 7" diameter pots) and then transplant them later?

If so - a few more questions follow:

The tubers were mainly on their side and the sprout comes out of the end at 90 degrees... are they better potted on their side or vertically?

What kind of soil/compost would be best for potting them? I know they aren't so fussy about soil but maybe there's one that's better than another for that bit.

What advice would you give to anyone who was planting them? (location, watering, soil for good tubers, feeding and the likes)

If I do pot a load up and decide to sell them at the front door, what's a good price? That's a long-ish shot though, I may not bother with that part, but it's worth asking anyway.


Thanks.

[Nicos]

6" pots will be OK just for a few weeks.
I'd put them in sideways as they've started to grow that way.
Any soil/compost mix would do- they're not too fussy.

Price???yikes- I'm rubbish at things like that How much dos a plastic pot cost these days??? ( remember you're also paying for the compost and your time)...maybe £2 / £2.50????? ( remember you can buy them to eat in the shops- which can be bunged into the soil now - might be worth costing up per pound??)
Do garden centres sell them?- so long as you are cheaper than them, you'll be fine! ( might be worth phoning round a few??)

As for advice for peeps buying them- why not Google different sites and write up a combination.
One piece of advice I'll pass on is- don't plant them at the base of a chicken wire fence and its post- cos they'll spread to either side of the netting and you'll be digging up the fence post at the same time when it comes to harvesting!!! ( I had the bright idea that I could easily fasten them to the fence when they got tall so they wouldn't fall over)
(Remember to tell them about their eventual height and invasiveness though)

Fingers crossed you manage to sell some- you can start your seed fund for next year!!!

[TonyF]

JAs are such an acquired taste, I'm not too sure people would be buying them at the gate, even here where they are much better known that they are in the UK, they're still a niche veggie.

Agree with Nicos about the pots and way to plant them, if you real;ly want to be concerned about the growing medium, something like John Innes 2 or 3 would be fine.

Not sure about pots in the longer term tho, they grow very tall and get very top heavy so perhaps a cheap B&Q bucket with holes in the bottom? Remember they're used as a wind break traditionally and are related to the sunflower family.

[organic]

Cheers, Nicos and Tony.

Nicos, pots are free and compost cheap. I could probably see making atleast £1.50 profit on a £2 price. It wouldn't take much time to sort out so not too fussy about an hourly rate for it.
Nice idea about calling a GC. I'll do that on my lunch.

Cheers for the story about the fence too! OOPS! I can see why it'd happen though. I've pulled up about 3 or 4 forkloads of soil around the artichokes so far and the sheer quantity in each one was astounding. I really can see why you wouldn't want them too near a fence.


Tony, I actually wouldn't expect to sell loads, but each one I sell would be a couple more packets from the seed-fund. Though I think I would be selling them on ebay as well as at the garden gate. There's probably a bit more of a market there.

I'm definitely only thinking about pots for the short term. I saw these things when they were fully grown when I got the plot last year. Some of them were an easy 10 feet, probably longer. Huge.