Growing artichokes in northern climates

[Meowmie]

I love artichokes, but being in WI, USA (I'm on the shore of Lake Michigan so am 'barely' in zone 6) I always thought they were not a possibility in my garden. The growing season is way to short here, and the plants do not produce chokes until the second year.

I now grow them, it takes a lot of trickery, but the seeds can be fooled. Overwintering in the garden is not an option, it's too cold here, the plants would die.

Growing in large containers didn't work, the plants are too large themselves and the size of container would need a fork lift to move it. Which I do not have.

My solution is to order the seeds a year ahead, the seeds I just got in the mail a few weeks ago will be for the 2015 season. I'm working on the seeds I got January 2013. They start out in the fridge for a month. Their artificial winter. When I take them out of the fridge to plant in early January, hopefully they are convinced this is their second year.

I start them with the beginning of the year, watch them carefully, they are my babies. As the season progresses and we get days where it gets above freezing, I will start putting them outside during the day, this is to further convince them they are not 1st year crops in case the fridge didn't have them convinced. After a month or so of that, they are back in under the lights to begin their second season. By this time they are in 6-8" pots and looking quite nice.

I plant them outside after the average last frost date for their 'second' year of growth. They are actually about 6 months old at this point,. It is a lot of work, but if you love artichokes like I do, and love the challenge of doing something they say you can't do, you might enjoy tricking the artichokes.

 

[Kansas Terri]

Eliot Coleman, who wrote "Four Season Harvest" about gardening in Maine, raises and sells artichokes.

He starts them inside, and when they have enough leaves on them he plants them outside in the cool spring air. Alas,, I do not remember how many leaves he wants to see!

The cool spring tricks the plant into thinking it is winter, and that way the artichokes bear. I have seen pictures of his artichoke plants and they are lovely!

I have ALSO tried to raise artichokes, with some small success. I say "Small success" because what artichokes I got were REALLY small! They were also really tasty, though!

Last year I had a plant winter over with the help of mulch, but this year I think has been too cold for that so I have started a packet of seed. I am having a bit of trouble with damping off disease and so I have no idea how many seedlings I will have to plant out.

 

[Meowmie]

I didn't dig up my artichokes from last year but have no doubt they did not survive the winter!

I've never counted the leaves, just try to get them as big and healthy as I can before I put them out in the cold air. Since I first had success placing seeds in the refrigerator and then setting them outside in the cold, I'm afraid to stop doing either of those things, and putting the seeds in the refrigerator is no effort.

The artichoke plants are beautiful, aren't they? I was amazed the first year I grew them (which produced no artichokes) The plants were lovely, and HUGE.

So far my only problems with growing them have been making them think they are second year plants, and not starting them early enough to fully produce in the short season I have.

Do you start your seedlings in clean pots (use bleach) with sterile potting soil?

I've been getting very good germination results with seeds from seedsnow.com Promo code for $5 off orders of $30 is XHDJG5SN.

 

[Kansas Terri]

I do use sterile potting soil, and this year I am using clamshells that used to have a rack of ribs in them. I thought that the long, narrow container looked almost right to set on a windowsill. It is actually a bit too wide but I was able to make it do.

This winter has been unusually cold, and I think too much chill came through the glass. Artichoke seedlings struggle when it falls below freezing, and I think it did inside the window when we were well into the negative numbers.