Artichoke Cynara cardunculus

How to sow artichoke: Direct seed indoors. In warmer zones, propagate "pups."

Sun requirement for artichoke: Plant in Full Sun

Artichoke has been planted 17 times by Growstuff members.

The globe artichoke is a variety of a species of thistle cultivated as a food. The budding artichoke flower-head is the edible part of the plant. It is a cluster of many budding small flowers (known as an "inflorescence") and bracts on an edible base. Once the buds bloom the head becomes coarse and barely edible. Artichokes are perennials in Zone 7 and warmer. They normally produce edible flower-heads during their second year, but recent cultivars such as 'Imperial Star' have been bred to produce in the first year. Other cultivars, such as 'Northern Star', have been bred to overwinter in more northern climates. There are green and purple varieties of artichoke. They are often steamed, sautéed or braised, but can also be eaten raw.

Predictions

Perennial

living more than two years

First harvest expected

28 weeks after planting

Height

90cm

Spread

120cm

Row Spacing

90cm

Photos

Artichoke crops

Open Farm photo

by cropbot 0

Open Farm photo

by cropbot 0

Open Farm photo

by cropbot 0

Photo by Pedro Joaquin Soto via iNaturalist (Copyright Pedro Joaquin Soto)

by cropbot 2024-01-01 0

Photo by rcjones via iNaturalist (Copyright rcjones)

by cropbot 2024-01-02 0

Artichoke plantings

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by shiny 2018-01-01 1

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by shiny 2019-12-14 1

Artichoke

by shiny 2020-01-05 1

Asparagus bed

by fe2h2o 2013-09-01 0

DSC_6522

by shiny 2016-11-27 0

Artichoke harvests

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by shiny 2017-10-20 0

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by shiny 2017-10-20 0

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by shiny 2017-10-20 0

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by shiny 2017-10-23 0

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by shiny 2018-01-04 0

more photos »

Sunniness

Planted from

Harvested for

Crop Map

Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown on this map.

What people are saying about artichokes

the bumble bee appreciates this artichoke

by shiny,

I left two artichokes, to see how big they'd get. Well, they are enormous. This bumblebee really appreciated them and spent about half an hour feasting on the nectar.

Bumblebee in artichoke flower

[artichoke](/crops/artich…

artichokes

Shakey SHakey Town

by shiny,

We've been rock and rolling with 7.7 Earthquake at midnight and i lost count of how many 6-pointer aftershocks - and a tsunami evacuation.

Super tired, this morning we went home for about 90 minutes sleep - and then went looking for something normal (instead of our wavy shaken up house). Scho…

tomatoes artichokes perpetual spinach chives

Coming together

by shawnacscott,

This weekend I had two full days to really focus on the yard, and I made the most of it. With the intermittent help of several others over the course of the weekend, I got both easement planter boxes filled with compost and soil, cleaned up and weeded the alley, got the stump pulled from the coni…

lettuces arugula mustard sunflowers dill onions beets tomatoes fenugreek bell peppers okra artichokes pot marigolds mint lavender spinach basils thyme parsley zucchini peas

First strawberry!

by neotoma,

I had the first tiny strawberry of the season today! I'm looking forward to many more.

Also, I transplanted a lot of seedlings into the community garden today: 2 cucumbers, 3 green beans, 2 tongue-of-fire beans, an ornamental [sweet potato](/crops/sweet-…