North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>]

On Dec 9, 2009, at 10:31 AM, Anton Ptak wrote:

> I looked into buying them from a few sources and realized they were twice as 
> much as they were in the local food coop when they were in season (may).  I 
> inquired with the produce manager if I could get some for planting and she 
> was able to secure a bushel of the last ugly ones of the season that 
> wouldn't sell, and I got them for a decent price.  No idea what variety they 
> are.  We planted a bushel in about a 100sq ft area and that seemed a little 
> tight- probably could have cut that in half and still had more than enough.

I don't know about sunchokes in particular, but in general there's a really good reason for sets, tubers, etc. sold for seed to cost more than those sold for eating. You need to plant your best in order to get a good healthy crop: if you plant cruddy seed, it's likely to not produce as well, and may even introduce disease to your fields that may take years to get rid of. In some cases, disease problems that are not obviously visible on the portion of the plant for sale and do not affect its use for eating may nevertheless be present and cause problems in the field.

Also, of course, as you don't know the variety, if they don't do well you won't know what to avoid in the future; and you may well have a variety not suited for your area, or for your particular soils. (If they do establish well, with sunchokes, I gather you're not likely to have a problem with trying to get the same seed in the future, as if anything those are hard to get rid of; but if you do lose the strain, you again won't know how to get the same strain again.)

All in all I think it's almost always worth paying for good seed / plants. The risks of just buying seed or plants from the cheapest source possible, without checking for equivalent quality, are considerable. (This isn't to say that some companies aren't much cheaper than others for the same quality, which does happen; but price shouldn't, in my opinion, be the only criteria; rather one of several things to consider.)
>
--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly