Dear Number One

"Dear Number One"

SELECTED Jerusalem Artichoke variety  FOR  DEER BROWSE RESISTANCE AND HEAVY PRODUCTION OF TUBERS

This paticular variety represents my attempt at deer browse immune sunchoke. Everyone knows how deer love the foliage of sunchokes. I remember one of my customers who bought a boat load of sunchokes to cover two acres. Within two years, they were all gone. Not a single sprout remained. Dear One overcomes this by its vigorous growth and hairy leaves and stems. (That's my theory.) As any gardener knows, immunity to deer is temporary and takes decades to evaluate fully however this selection and Dear Two are essentially the last of all the sunchokes I produced as seedlings and varieties and have been free of any browse attempt in the last four years. They appear immune so far. I'm tempting fate this year and moving more away from planting areas where there is even more deer as the outer areas of the farm are frequented by drive by deer who come in from the neighboring fields and farms. 

Dear Number One provides a small uniform tuber with nice color and one of the heaviest yielding selections in line with Starwhite Cluster and Weisse Truffel where the tubers completely pack the woven bags I had them in.  Even as a resistant variety it is a good culinary selection compared to deer number two.

Available dormant only in the spring.