Imagine a crop that works as hard as you do, returning to your garden with vigorous reliability every single spring. Beaver Valley Purple is a standout heirloom variety that balances ornamental beauty with a generous harvest. Standing at a manageable yet impressive seven to ten feet, these stalks spend their summer acting as a living privacy screen before erupting into a cheerful display of miniature golden sunflowers. As the season cools in October, the real treasure is revealed underground: smooth, purple-skinned tubers that lack the frustrating knobs of other varieties. Their football-like shape makes them a breeze to scrub clean in the kitchen, where you'll enjoy a crisp, white interior and a distinctively nutty sweetness.
This variety has earned its place in the permanent garden for its sheer resilience and high productivity. Whether you are looking to support local pollinators with late-season blooms or seeking a dependable, low-maintenance root crop that thrives year after year, these sunchokes are a steadfast choice. Plant them once, and look forward to a lifetime of autumn harvests and towering summer greenery.
Sunchoke tuber size can be very variable, but on average 1 pound will contain at least 4-8 tubers.
We'll have a limited quantity of sunchokes available for pre-order in January; more will be re-stocked after our tubers are dug in spring (typically April).
Sunchokes are sensitive to drying out; keep them closed in their bags in a cool place until planting. Large tubers can be split, as with potatoes, as long as each tuber section has 2-3 eyes per piece. Allow the cut edge to cure just long enough to dry slightly before planting.
Plant tubers in full sun in fertile, well-draining soil 4†deep and 12-18†apart, with the growing tips pointing upwards. Shoots will emerge in 1-3 weeks. Midsummer, you may choose to cut the bright yellow flowers for indoor arrangements and to divert more energy to the growth of the tubers.
Begin harvesting in late summer or wait for fall frosts to sweeten the roots. Even in cold climates with hard freezing soil, tubers will overwinter in the soil without fuss, so feel free to simply leave them in the ground and harvest as desired during times of thaw throughout the winter. Harvest with a digging fork, feeling for tubers with your fingers. They may be up to 1’ deep in the soil.
For storage, brush excess soil off of the tubers, and leave them somewhere warm, dark and dry to cure for 5-7 days. Store the cured tubers wrapped in paper towels in plastic bags, in a refrigerator crisper drawer or root cellar. They store best when kept absolutely dry but in a high humidity environment, and can last 2 to 5 months like this.
Sunchokes are perennial crops with an insistent habit. To keep them contained, either plant them in containers or with in-ground barriers, or mow around the edges of your sunchoke beds in mid-spring, being sure to cut down any new shoots that are emerging in undesirable places.
Product Details
Days to Maturity
90 days
Width at Maturity
36"
Height at Maturity
8-10'
Sun Conditions
Full Sun (8+ Hours Sun)
Planting Depth
4"
Row Spacing
18-36"
Plant Spacing
12-18"
Special shipping
Sunchoke tubers are harvested and shipped as soon as the ground thaws (typically early April to mid-May). If you purchase seeds and sunchokes at the same time anytime from January until the ship date for your region, you will receive two shipmentsâ - a prompt shipment of seeds and a later shipment of tubers - and the shipping fees shown at checkout will take this second delivery into account. Sunchokes do not ship internationally.
