Green Globe Artichokes
 

I decided to try my hand at growing a dozen artichoke plants this year, any tips?

MMMM, yum.

No tips, but do you have plenty of room for them? They can get pretty big.

[QUOTE=imp;615927]MMMM, yum.

No tips, but do you have plenty of room for them? They can get pretty big.[/QUOTE]

At one garden I have about 2 acres with only half of it being used. Looks like they are planted 4' apart and can grow 6' wide. I don't think they will grow as a perennial here so I'll have to replant every year.

IF, huge IF too- if I recall correctly, you can cut them back pretty low and over winter them with some cover.

Been a very very long time since I lived in northern California and grew both cardoons and artichokes.

Check out the instructions on Johnny's Select Seed site. They don't overwinter in Minneapolis, so it's important for us to get one of the varieties bred to work as annuals and to plant them early enough so that you can transplant them while they still get some cold nights (50 degrees) before the season warms up. We've grown Imperial Star (F1) the past couple of years and they've done well for us. They like fertile soil and plenty of sun.

Bitterwort, were your Imperial Star artichokes as large as supermarket equivalents? A top notch local gardener that is also with the county extension said her Imperal Stars never grew to full size. They were more like an ornamental. Same for myself. What the heck did you feed them?

- Lisa

I have had artichoke hearts before and they were okay.
At work they served the whole thing and it was like trying to eat a tree stump or cactus all the way to the heart.
Nothing there to eat.
What is the deal with this, am I missing something?:?
Or did they just get some that were over mature?:?!?:
Is my thick hillbilly blood not pure enough for such high brow cuisine.:lol:

Worth

Yes you are missing out on the real deal Worth. Its a great summer food to sit around eating when they go on sale for 99 cents. You steam them and pull off each leaf individually, dip the tip where it meets the stem in butter and scrape the meat off with your teeth. If you like steamed with butter style asparagus it is somewhat the same flavor. The heart is the same taste but easier to get at. Just another green vegetable best when eaten as fresh as possible. Nothing really high about it except the price off season.

- Lisa

[QUOTE=greenthumbomaha;616139]Yes you are missing out on the real deal Worth. Its a great summer food to sit around eating when they go on sale for 99 cents. You steam them and pull off each leaf individually, dip the tip where it meets the stem in butter and scrape the meat off with your teeth. If you like steamed with butter style asparagus it is somewhat the same flavor. The heart is the same taste but easier to get at. Just another green vegetable best when eaten as fresh as possible. Nothing really high about it except the price off season.

- Lisa[/QUOTE]

I'm telling you there was nothing to scrape off with your teeth.
It was like an asbestos shingle all the way down.:))
Of course the same bunch got a ((deal))) on whole turkeys one year.
The meat was rancid and nobody noticed but us farm guys.

I think they got the same ((deal)) on the artichokes never saw them again in ten years.
Worth

Lisa, my Imperial Star did not get to supermarket size, but I didn't expect them to from the catalog description offered. Since we're in Minnesota, not California, I thought it was great to get any--and they made quite a few nice smaller buds. From other things I've read, the bud size increases the second and following years--so if I lived in a milder climate, I might be tempted to cover them over heavily with straw and trying to overwinter them that way. I haven't had any luck so far in digging the roots and getting them to overwinter in a cool spot in the house.

As far as feeding them, I added a lot of compost to the bed and threw in a good handful of 10-10-10 granular fertilizer in the planting hole. Then I hit them with liquid fertilizer (probably the blue stuff) throughout the season. They made a nice flush of buds early in the season; then sulked in the midsummer heat before getting going again as the temperatures eased off. The plants themselves were never over a couple feet or so tall and they didn't take up as much room as I expected.

I'm trying Colorado Star, a purple annual variety, from Johnny's this year as well as Imperial Star.

Artichokes make fruit aka bloom in their second year so it is important to give them at least a week of cold nights if you are starting them from seed. This tricks them into thinking that they have gone through a winter in So. Cal. and are now 2 years old and then they will bloom for you.

I grew Emerald Globe from seed 2 years ago and they were smaller than the supermarket artichokes but so much better tasting and super tender. I covered them with a heavy layer of straw after the first frost but they didn't come up the next spring.

Zone 5.

[URL]http://durgan.org/2009/From%20Previous%20Years/18%20September%202008%20Globe%20Artichoke%20(Cynara%20scolymus)/HTML/index.htm[/URL] 18 September 2008 Globe Artichoke (Cynara scolymus)

I grew artichokes for about four years. They were placed in the garden in the Spring (June) from seedlings started in the Winter. They never over-wintered in Zone 5. Above is the best picture that I could find. A plant gets huge and needs a spacing of 2.5 feet from center to center.. They like warm weather for max production and a fair amount of Sun. They are basically a large thistle. They are basically perennials and produce in the second year, but mine produced well in the first year. Zone 5 is too cold and I never got nine to over-winter due to frost. One year a plant survived but it did not produce a head.

[IMG]http://durgan.org/2009/From%20Previous%20Years/18%20September%202008%20Globe%20Artichoke%20(Cynara%20scolymus)/HTML/18%20september%202008%20%20peppers%20005_std.jpg[/IMG]

[URL]http://durgan.org/2011/[/URL]

Beautiful pictures, Durban. I rescued 3 little tiny half-dead plants from the garden center for a buck each (I mean like 3 inch pots and plants only 6 inches tall). I put them in 15 gallon grow bags and just waited to see what would happen. They are very pretty plants, almost look like aloe. I would think Cali would be the best climate for them. They didn't seem to like being watered very often. I knew they would get fairly large because grocery store artichokes are pretty large blossoms. But these grew so fast: they got to be over 3 feet in diameter before the frost hit.

They are over-wintering now. I shoved the bags up against my house and covered them with straw and a frost blanket. I peeked under the cover last week and the outer leaves were brown but there was lots of green toward the center.

Thanks for letting me know they will need food. I will give them some MG when I take the cover off.

That photo is very interesting. It looks like the artichoke I saw in the supermarket this week. The leaves were light green and rather loose like yours are.The head is slightly elongated. Typically the variety they sell in the summertime is round, tight and more of an olive green.

I might try and wake up some old seed I have on hand.

- Lisa

They are heavy feeders and like a lot of composted horse manure,kelp,fish emulsion.lots of water but excellent drainage,no water when dormant. Watch out for aphids and get them some ladybugs as soon as they appear.
They are worth growing even as ornamentals if nothing else.
Cardoons are more cold hardy and supposed to taste similar,you do have to blanch them.
I'm growing artichokes for the first time since moving here from AZ to NC. In AZ they would die back in summer because they don't like it too hot. I'm trying to figure out the best spot for them in NC.

I've read you can overwinter in cold environments by digging up the roots and putting them in sand in a garage.

I would be doubtful about digging them up successfully since they have long taproots which will likely get damaged.

Tracy is right- they are extremely heavy feeders +2, LOL, and about water. The cooler coastal fogs help make the good crops of these in California.

I seem to recall some being over wintered by cutting back, stuffing some newspapers loosely rolled up and firmly tucked in and around the plants, then a large basket over them. Over that, hay or leaves, and then a secured tarp.

Sort of like over wintering a fig in really cold areas.

Update
Seeds have been planted for 8 days... no sprouts yet.

[QUOTE=imp;617533]Tracy is right- they are extremely heavy feeders +2, LOL, and about water. The cooler coastal fogs help make the good crops of these in California.

I seem to recall some being over wintered by cutting back, stuffing some newspapers loosely rolled up and firmly tucked in and around the plants, then a large basket over them. Over that, hay or leaves, and then a secured tarp.

Sort of like over wintering a fig in really cold areas.[/QUOTE]

I'm in northern CA and artichokes are almost invasive in my community garden. They return every spring and the area is littered with them. Not sure if the roots go dormant and send new shoots as the weather warms or if its the thistles falling in the summer and germinating themselves. Regardless "zero" effort is done to get them to overwinter here. :lol: And they are the Green Globe variety.

Maybe I should try to get them to take over here.
Worth

[QUOTE=Hunt-Grow-Cook;617576]I'm in northern CA and artichokes are almost invasive in my community garden. They return every spring and the area is littered with them. Not sure if the roots go dormant and send new shoots as the weather warms or if its the thistles falling in the summer and germinating themselves. Regardless "zero" effort is done to get them to overwinter here. :lol: And they are the Green Globe variety.[/QUOTE]

Are they very expensive there? My dh just bought some at Walmart last week. They were almost $3 each. I love the taste but they are a delicacy here.

Next year I will try cutting back some foliage before I put down the straw and frost blanket. I think I will be able to revive them.

I love artichokes. It must be a family trait. My dad and I adore them and we both hate cabbage, broccoli and all that stuff. I could say they are probably my second favorite vegetable after…guess what. They are very easy to grow. Plant a scion in the ground and it will spread quickly. Artichokes don’t mind cold weather at all, at least the kind of cold weather we get over here. Hunt-Grow-Cook is right: they are almost invasive. That’s why I got rid of the two plants I had in the garden:twisted:.
As far as eating/cooking, there are many ways. One of the best for me is eating them raw . That is cleaning an artichoke (pic. #1 shows what to peel and what to cut), disposing of the outer leaves which are way too hard, dipping the softer leaves in extravirgin olive oil+salt+black pepper you have poured and mixed in a small cup, and eating the yellow lower part of the leaves (as you go on they’ll get softer and you can eat more including the heart of the artichoke, my favorite part of it). The next morning you’ll have a sharp, bitter taste in your mouth. Mmm yummy.
Another less “brutal” way to eat them is to cut them pretty thin (pic. # 2) and cook them for not too long in the wok with EV oil, or butter if that matches your taste better, salt and jowl bacon. I prefer them to be crispy and not too soft. This will be a perfect sauce for your pasta. If it’s too delicate for your taste, add a few black olives and/or some of the zillion peppers you pepper growers have:dizzy:. You’ll love it:P.
For these two purposes, especially the first one, I find violet artichokes to work better. If you plan on stuffing them and cooking them in the oven, I think the round green globe varieties suit better.

I would like opinions on this new variety, Colorado Star, bred for northern climates. I have never found any artichoke transplants around this area, even in niche market sales.

I forgot about the Imperial Star seeds I started for this past season. It would have been a great year to grow artichokes with the exnteded warm weather in the midwest.


- Lisa
[QUOTE=bitterwort;616207]Lisa, my Imperial Star did not get to supermarket size, but I didn't expect them to from the catalog description offered. Since we're in Minnesota, not California, I thought it was great to get any--and they made quite a few nice smaller buds. From other things I've read, the bud size increases the second and following years--so if I lived in a milder climate, I might be tempted to cover them over heavily with straw and trying to overwinter them that way. I haven't had any luck so far in digging the roots and getting them to overwinter in a cool spot in the house.

As far as feeding them, I added a lot of compost to the bed and threw in a good handful of 10-10-10 granular fertilizer in the planting hole. Then I hit them with liquid fertilizer (probably the blue stuff) throughout the season. They made a nice flush of buds early in the season; then sulked in the midsummer heat before getting going again as the temperatures eased off. The plants themselves were never over a couple feet or so tall and they didn't take up as much room as I expected.

I'm trying Colorado Star, a purple annual variety, from Johnny's this year as well as Imperial Star.[/QUOTE]

Artichoke plants survive our winters here as long as they are kept dry enough. Soggy soil rots the roots.

We can't overwinter them here in Zone 5, but it is nice you can in B.C. A variety called Imperial Star had the potential to produce artichokes if you trick them into thinking they had been thru a winter by starting early and giving them some time outside at 50 degrees, then back inside.

The same breeder introduced a new annual type artichoke called Colorado Star. The poster I referenced was trialing it. I was interested in how the harvest went on this new introduction for us in Zone 5 and below.

- Lisa

Both varieties (Colorado Star and Imperial Star) did pretty well for us. At first it looked like we'd be skunked because they were sorely afflicted with black aphids, which we mistakenly thought was soil splashup. Once we took care of that they started growing and producing, with a short lag for some hot weather. Once it started getting a bit cooler, they geared up and started producing again and are still going. If we had planted them somewhere with better soil, they'd probably go gangbusters. They're not sizable enough to sit down and eat one as a side dish with dinner, but quartered and cooked, they're quite nice. If my planting space wasn't so constrained, I think I could do very well with them.

I've tried overwintering the roots in a cold place in the house a couple of times, but so far it hasn't work.

Well, jme, but I grow artichokes for about 8 years now and have not found them to be 'heavy feeders' and we get more chokes than we can eat, giving lots away. I have two large beds of them and I added lots of horse manure when I planted them but other than hay mulch and water nothing else since. They grow like crazy and make PUPS. :yes:

[QUOTE=bitterwort;665529]Both varieties (Colorado Star and Imperial Star) did pretty well for us. At first it looked like we'd be skunked because they were sorely afflicted with black aphids, which we mistakenly thought was soil splashup. Once we took care of that they started growing and producing, with a short lag for some hot weather. Once it started getting a bit cooler, they geared up and started producing again and are still going. If we had planted them somewhere with better soil, they'd probably go gangbusters. They're not sizable enough to sit down and eat one as a side dish with dinner, but quartered and cooked, they're quite nice. If my planting space wasn't so constrained, I think I could do very well with them.

I've tried overwintering the roots in a cold place in the house a couple of times, but so far it hasn't work.[/QUOTE]



Bravo for trying both. I'd love any size homegrown artichoke. What they sell here is not very fresh looking. There must be a reason that the local growers don't sell this vegetable at the farmers market.


I was thinking of getting a few buckets ready to keep inside. Well that saves me a lot of work :)

- Lisa