Growing up Gorgeous, the Globe Artichoke

What are you going to grow? Why not the gorgeous Globe Artichoke?

Proper name: Cynara scolymus

Description: this useful plant is a perennial but bear in mind it’s not full frost hardy across the UK. Usually it is grown for the flower-buds which are deliciously edible, but canny gardeners know that you can blanch the leaf shoots too, which gives a second crop that can be cooked like celery.

Soil and site: Globe artichokes need a good fertile soil that is well drained but not so porous it dries out too quickly (here's a tip, just put some soil in a flat tray with drainage holes, saturate it and leave it to dry. If it forms a crust, it’s probably too porous). Because the plants stay in place for up to four years, make sure you manure the ground in advance to give all the nutrients they need over their lifetime. This is a big bushy plant, taking up an area of around three to four feet across and five tall. So you must make sure that not only does it have ample space in itself, but it doesn’t shade out or encroach on other crops. It tends to prefer sunshine to shade.

Cultivation: Plant offsets in April, making sure they have plenty of space, or grow from seed in March in a heated greenhouse, moving outside in May. Keep well watered and give a sprinkle of nitrogen based fertilizer in spring. Much with compost or some other organic matter in summer and support taller growing varieties with stakes. Do not allow the plants to flower in their first year – prevent this by pinching out all the flower buds! When the plants mature in year two, restrict the number of main buds (called king heads) to five or six. Cut these king heads when they are about for inches across, snipping through the stem about six inches below the bud, this means smaller buds will develop giving you second crop. Once the flower has expanded though, the head is inedible. In autumn, cut down the foliage - and on exposed sites, earth up the crowns and cover them lightly with bark or newspaper, ensuring there is enough air circulation for them not to rot. Remove in early spring.

Next time I’ll talk about how to get that second crop from the stems and the – fortunately - rare problems experienced by this wonderful crop.

Labels: allotment-crops, globe-artichoke, growing-vegetables