Green Globe Artichokes

[Tracydr]

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

[brownrexx]

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

[imp]

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.

[pmcgrady]

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

[Hunt-Grow-Cook]

Originally Posted by imp

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.

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. And they are the Green Globe variety.

[Worth1]

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

[MuddyToes]

Originally Posted by Hunt-Grow-Cook

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. And they are the Green Globe variety.

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.

[Fritz77]

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.
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. You’ll love it.
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.

[greenthumbomaha]

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

Originally Posted by bitterwort

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.

[GrowingCoastal]

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

[greenthumbomaha]

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

[bitterwort]

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.

[ChiliPeppa]

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.

[greenthumbomaha]

Originally Posted by bitterwort

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.

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