(light bouncy music) >>Have you ever received a plant from someone and you're excited to get it, but you've never grown that kind of plant before?

Basically, you need to do some additional research.

Because one of the things that I always ask myself is: is it invasive, will it take over?

And how tall will it grow?

I received a Jerusalem artichoke, and it was about this size.

So I went to do research online.

I went to different books.

What I found is the best information on this came from my local extension office.

So Jerusalem artichokes, they're close to potatoes, meaning, I get to eat them.

They have low glycemic index, a lot less sugar.

But another thing that I learned about this plant is that it's part of the sunflower family.

So it can grow to eight to 10 foot tall.

If I just put it in the ground, it'll keep on spreading through its root system.

And as it continues to spread, it also will become more invasive and take over sections of my garden.

So what I've decided to do is: let's start growing these in containers.

We select a container.

You wanna make sure that it's wide enough, but it's at least 12 inches deep so those root systems can form.

And you also wanna make sure it has good drainage.

So this has pretty good drain holes on the bottom.

Let's talk about the soil.

It can grow in almost any type of soil.

But I want some real healthy roots, so I decided to add some compost in here with some of my regular soil that I have.

So I mixed this soil inside of this pot.

I'm gonna move this potato out of the way, and I'm gonna show you what I ended up having to do.

I made sure that I had some Jerusalem artichokes that had some tiny little eyes on them to make sure that those eyes were sprouted.

I didn't have to wait till these eyes sprouted.

I just needed to make sure that they had some viable eyes on them.

And then I would just dig deep into the soil, maybe about midway, and then plant this, nestle it into the soil, and then continue to water it.

And keep it in a pretty much sunny location.

And then before I know it, I see beautiful shoots coming up within a week to two weeks.

And I'm gonna do a test draw with this.

I'm gonna grow one in my greenhouse, and then I'm gonna grow one in sun and shade and see how well it grows.

Because what I've learned is: if you wanna grow something successful, sometimes it's a trial and error process.

When experimenting with something different, consider growing in containers.

Often, we grow in containers.

It gives us that flexibility to control the amount of water we put in it, as well as being able to move it around in your garden from hot to sunny places to locations that have more shade.

Even afternoon shade versus morning shade.

Especially if you want to try to grow some ginger or turmeric, they definitely need morning sun and afternoon shade.

Try to grow something that you haven't grown before.

Do the research, learn about it, find out what needs that it has.

Have fun trying something different.

Happy gardening.