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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 29, 2015 13:15:44 GMT -5
You'd only need a few patches to circulate through, so long as you could successfully rogue out the weeds from the previous cycle in the time a patch is fallow. Ha! Don't think it's possible. This is Jerusalem Artichokes that we are dealing with!! |
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Post by darrenabbey on Apr 29, 2015 13:51:48 GMT -5
You'd only need a few patches to circulate through, so long as you could successfully rogue out the weeds from the previous cycle in the time a patch is fallow. Ha! Don't think it's possible. This is Jerusalem Artichokes that we are dealing with!! I've had good luck killing it off... but I'm perhaps a bit more OCD than most. |
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Post by darrenabbey on May 14, 2015 22:27:40 GMT -5
I got tired of waiting for my hybrid sunflower tubers to appear above ground... I went out with a knife and slowly scraped away the soil where I planted the tubers. Both plants were waiting just below the soil line, presumably for warmer temperatures to appear. Hopefully I didn't harm the growth points by uncovering them a bit earlier than they would have otherwise been.
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Post by darrenabbey on May 26, 2015 15:23:51 GMT -5
I was worried about deer eating my sunflowers... but it seems that a much smaller mammal (mouse?) decided to cut off one of my F1 perennial sunflower sprouts at ground level. I found the lightly chewed stem an inch away, looking fresh enough that it must have just happened. The tuber might send up another sprout, so I'll try to remain optimistic. The other plant is still alive, but is also small enough that it is in danger from the same mammal.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 8, 2015 20:00:13 GMT -5
The sunroot seeds that I planted are germinating... Typical sunroot seedling.  Possibly a hybrid with an annual sunflower?  |
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Post by darrenabbey on Jun 9, 2015 22:15:01 GMT -5
So, the mouse ate the second F1 plant off at ground level. I was irritated and resigned myself to not have the plant, but still hoped they would grow secondary sprouts. The larger F1 tuber has sent up two additional sprouts. The smaller F1 tuber might have another growing. Hopefully I can keep the mice/deer off of them this time.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 11, 2015 23:46:57 GMT -5
darrenabbey: Send those critters in my direction... I've got about 40,000 sunroot weeds growing in one of my fields. They could use a good eating.
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Post by darrenabbey on Jun 12, 2015 22:14:17 GMT -5
Can I send them your way via shotgun? Before I got the mouse-proof cages around the babies, they were trimmed off again. The larger tuber I planted should have plenty of energy left to send up yet another sprout.
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Post by darrenabbey on Jun 13, 2015 21:48:21 GMT -5
After a thorough examination during sunlit hours, both tubers still have at least one growing axillary bud on the original stems. The collars are now secured to the ground with tent-stakes. Any overly-enthusiastic rodents can climb over them, but the ground-hugging voles that I expect are the problem will be excluded. Assuming the plants grow up further, the collars will remain in place for the rest of the year. When I examined the stems of last years plants, they were chewed all around at ground level, but it didn't stop this plant. I still need to construct a larger-scale exclusion device to keep the deer from destroying the plants before they get tall enough to not care about such things.
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Post by darrenabbey on Sept 12, 2015 2:18:32 GMT -5
The main plant has survived the summer, but the secondary plant did not. The mesh collar kept the voles from doing further damage, though the plant was set back significantly by getting repeatedly trimmed. To protect the plant from larger herbivores, I wrapped a large section of chicken-wire around it.
The plant is now about 2-ft tall and has started developing its main flower. Last year it flowered at ~10 ft. This year I'll let the seeds ripen fully on the plant, with a bag of some sort to protect them from birds, etc.
I'm thinking of digging up the plant at season's end, so I can record any tuber production. This will also let me baby any tubers through the winter (which I know works), so I can maintain the hybrid and get more seeds later.
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Post by starry on Oct 6, 2015 10:33:30 GMT -5
I collected 9 seeds from the one Jerusalem artichoke flower I was able to pollinate with a large seeded sunflower this fall. There were 9 other flowers in the bunch and I collected a total of 11 seeds from all 9 compared to the 9 seeds from the sunflower pollinated one. I take that as a good sign that the pollination was a success. Will have to wait until next year to find out. The Jerusalem artichokes were all the same variety 'clearwater' so the seed set was expected to be low. 9 seeds from one flower is quite good.  |
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Post by starry on Oct 6, 2015 10:35:07 GMT -5
Hopefully next season I will have some seeds to share with you Darren.
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Post by darrenabbey on Oct 19, 2015 14:15:58 GMT -5
Awesome. That sort of seed set is much like what I had when I started my project.
My sunroot-RussianMammoth hybrid managed to flower, even with the difficulties the plant had early in the season. The petals have now dropped and the head is secured in a bag to keep out any birds while the seeds mature. The entire plant being enclosed with chicken-wire should also help keep the birds out. I'm really curious what the F2s will look like next year. I will have to take rather more extreme measures to keep the local mammals out of my patch.
With how little tuber was produced last year and the difficulties the F1 had this year, I'm expecting a complete failure to tuberize at all this year. (though I'm still hoping it will.) I do have some more seeds from the original cross (though I don't know how viable they will be), so I can try to find another giant-and-tuberizing F1 hybrid next year.
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Post by Guest on Oct 22, 2015 16:40:37 GMT -5
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Post by darrenabbey on Dec 13, 2015 20:29:10 GMT -5
My one perennial plant grew to about four feet tall this year, after being mowed to the ground several (4?) times by mice. It flowered nicely, but produced no seeds. Last year, it produced a full head of seeds... but I harvested it too early. Last year it was growing beside three other F1s from the same cross, so it appears to have the self-incompatibility of the sunroot parent. I'm going to leave the plant (and any potential) tubers in the ground this winter. With the severe el nino going on and the expected very mild winter, I'm not worried about the subterranean parts surviving. To minimize the risk of vole damage in the early spring, I've built a vole-proof fence around the plant, covering an area wider than the original tuber travelled from its mother plant.  The enclosure is large enough that I've tucked in several other plants needing protection from the mammals. |
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