My Blog
Artichoke
Mon, February 23, 2009 - 10:36 AM
There's a problem, though. There is supposed to be one central stalk that comes out the center of the plant. This plant is really 3 plants, and no signs of any stalks yet. How do you divide one of these suckers? Also, there's three intense insect cultures supported here. Aphids are eating the plant. And that has attracted ladybugs--there's about 5-6 resident on the plant at any given time, and I assume more will show as time goes on. The ants are intensively milking the aphids so the entire plant is very active.
Mon, February 23, 2009 - 10:36 AM -
permalink -
2 Comments
2 Comments |
add a comment |
|
Mon, February 23, 2009 - 4:58 PM
The ladybugs are good, they will eat the aphids, but lacewing larvae are even better.
Here is some info on growing artichokes (Sunset is good because it knows our western climate zones) www.sunset.com/garden/fru...0000016122/ |
|
Wed, February 25, 2009 - 7:06 AM
Be Patient.
I agree with Rebecca, and it's the larvae of the ladybugs which are going to do most of the eating. But a good shot of water will break up the aphis mat. Or you can squish them, which is very gratifying.
Second, the artichokes are the bloom stalks. Multiple crowns will be multiple bloom spikes. You divide earlier in the season (especially in your area, which is marginal for ideal choke production). Finally, check out cardoons online. In the olden days, cardoons and artichokes were separated, but they've done DNA research which has proven they're one and the same plant. Artichokes are just domesticated cultivars. However, given the dentation on your leaves, it looks suspiciously like a cardoon (artichoke sauvage as it were). If so, the flowers and buds will be quite small. However the mid-ribs are cardoons are edible (cardoni) and taste just like les fonds de artichaux. |
