The Two Sisters: Sunchokes and Beans

Sunchokes are an amazing native of North America.  They are in the same genus as sunflowers. Their scientific name is Helianthus tuberosus, and as the name implies, they grow many tubers in late summer and fall.  I ordered these from fedco seeds. I believe these pictures are of some Waldspinel Sunchokes. I am growing beans up them, much like the three sisters method.  When growing vining plants it is important to let the anchor plant grow big enough so that the vining plant has something to work with.  The beans were planted after the sunchokes were about a foot tall.   They need very little maintenance, slightly less than average water needs for your garden.  I just added some compost to the bases, but only because their roots were being exposed.  If you live in a place that has slightly alkaline soils, they will thrive. 

This is the bat house.  It is made of plywood and furring strips.  It was built by stacking the four sheets of plywood, one in front of the other. Each seperated by two pieces of furring strips, one running down on each side. This creates three chambers for them to crawl into and make home.  

The dimension are 36" X 48", including the 12" landing strip located on the bottom.  The plywood was scuffed up with a saw and drill to provide places for the bats to hold on to and noseeums netting was stapled to the landing pad at the bottom. Bats like a variety of microclimates so the bigger the bathouse the more places for the bat to move around in.  Of course not all bats live in big spaces.  This house was placed in front of the flowering yucca and marshmallow plants, which hopefully will attract pollinators which will attract the bats.

In my region bats generally find homes in the spring when they are migrating to the area and raising their young.  They also find new cooler places in the fall to help them reach a state of reduced body heat and metabolism called torpor. 

Young Naranjilla Plant.

Naranjilla

The naranjillas(Solanum quitoense) are starting to fill out nicely.  They are planted in a mixture of potting soil, top soil, manure compost, and bark/leaf mulch.  They are extremely shaded behind the litchi tomatoes and do as good as the ones out in more sun. That ability would make an excellent house plant.
The leaves are colored with purple, soft, large, and fuzzy leaves bigger than my hand. However, the hairs that cover the leaves make it stick to almost anything it rubs against, which makes it vulnerable to high traffic areas. They have been the slowest growing of all the garden berry plants this year, and are not suppose to fruit in my climate(USDA zone 5a.)  In about September I will bring it in the greenhouse, but it will get too cold and need to come inside the house for a few months.

Litchi Tomato Fruit

The litchi tomatoes pictured here were started by seed in March. Many are about 6' tall and much stronger stemmed than tomato plants. They taste like sweet tomatoes, but they have much more texture, like a cherry does. Below are several of them growing in organic miracle grow potting soil with added perlite.  They are water hogs and enjoy very wet conditions. They are much bigger than ground cherries or goldenberries.  The ground cherries however produce tons of fruit, and much earlier than the litchi tomato did. They also grow close the ground, compared to the upright litchi tomatoes.  The fruit of the ground cherry is almost like a tomato/strawberry cross. The goldenberries have been the last to mature, they grow upright with beautiful fruit shells hanging that contains purple streaks.  I haven't been able to figure out what it tastes like, but it's similar to the ground cherry, maybe a little less sweet. All of these plants are under the canopy of a tree and seem to do fine in the shade.  The more water they get the better, and they can easily wilt.

Litchi Tomatoes

Ground Cherry Fruit

Peruvian Goldenberry Plant

Ground Cherry Plant

Peruvian Goldenberry Fruit