let's see what kind of data we get from this.

i have a fair sized colony of jerusalem artichokes in my back yard that have occupied a bed for several yeas now...i plan to maintain that bed and add additional water when i think it is warranted ( they are natives and acclimated and tough as nails...but they still wilt from time to time )...i also have them cropping up in places i don't want them and so i began to cull the rouges this afternoon...eight in all ( so far )...rather than toss them into the compost bin to grow there i decided to plant them in an unused bed and allow them only rainfall as sustenance over the season...whatever the outcome...and then compare harvests ( per plant ) when the time comes...if it is a difficult summer the harvests should vary accordingly...if not then i have more tubers...the natives should be the "canary in a coal mine" for climate change...maybe...recent research that i have read says plants' native range may migrate two hundred kilometers northward with the coming changes...jerusalem artichokes are native to all forty-eight contiguous states except new mexico, arizona, and nevada...a two hundred kilometer northward shift in range still leaves them native here...we'll see as it goes along.