If it’s aeronautical miles, my bet is on Redwood City.
I planted artichokes this year for the first time (5 Opera and 5 Green Globe). I did my best to vernalize, I guess I’ll find out if I was successful sometime this fall
2 Likes
San Mateo Highlands - Eichler tract on the top of the hill. (F
or those of you in other parts of the country that don’t know Eichler homes, attached is a photo. )
We get cooling air from the ocean late afternoons, but decent heat during the day. Warm enough to grow Citrus, but nights cool enough for Artichokes and cooler weather crops.
1 Like
My wife absolutely LOVES Eichler homes.
No those are not Artichokes. Photo is just a screen grab showing a typical Eichler in our neighborhood.
As I stated earlier I stopped growing artichokes because i had such a problem with Aphids. Aphids on the leaves wasn’t a big issue but they would get down around the heart of the choke. Impossible to clean out without using lots of water.
1 Like
2 Likes
Violette, Emily? Looks lovely!
It’s actually Opera. I live in southwest Missouri so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to provide enough vernalization hours for violette. Opera is supposed to be good for annual production. I’m excited to see that all of the work vernalizing them was worth it!
1 Like
Very good choice, Emily. Let us know how it tastes. I have 3 Violette and 3 Jeruselum Star I planted a while back . Took Richard’s advice and went to one of our local, privately owned garden centers here in Vista, CA, Pearson’s Gardens. Probably one of the most beautiful and and well-kept garden centers I’ve ever seen. They have a really nice selection of unusual and heirloom cultivars of veggies and herbs. Have to bring cash when I go there, or I get myself in trouble.
Patty S.
1 Like
Good looking plants! Bet they turn out delicious! Do not let them go to seed, in my local area of San Diego they have escaped the farm and have turned into quite the pest, completely dominating some fields in our local open space parks. After a few generations they revert to their original genotype with all of its nasty spines. They are quite the pain when they grow near a trail.
I’ve been told that they are still good eating, so I’ll probably do my part and chop a couple of the ripe bulbs and try to cook them.
@JCT I did that last year. If you do, make sure to use super thick gloves to handle them, vicious spines. The edible portion in my batch turned out to be more morsel sized but it was fun to try!
1 Like
This year I have a number of artichokes that I am growing from seeds that my mother plants produced last year. Some will get the axe due to the buds being less than ideal but at least one is forming buds that look very promising. Unfortunately a few of the seedlings do have some thorns.
One of the globe-type F1 hybrids (maybe Imperial?) has some thorns but a lot of flavor too.
Here’s a spiny artichoke growing just down the hill from my house. Note all the spines, they do hurt if you brush up against them!
And here’s a field that is being taken over by them!
A friend did harvest one of the flowers and said that they were not bad, but the spines were more of a pain than the domesticated version. I’ll have to try and help our native environment by harvesting a few and trying them myself!
They aren’t native. Instead, they are runaway thistles from F1 hybrids.
I should have said, by removing the vegetable fruit portion, I remove the ability of that plant to propagate and do a very small bit for that field.
3 Likes
New 3’x3’ bed for my Imperial Star
2 Likes
