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Tue, Sep 23, 14 at 8:26
| So, the birth of my son made spring gardening damned hard to do this year. Frankly, looking back on it, it's a wonder I got anything in the ground with all the hullabaloo in our lives in may/june! The biggest issue by far was that delays in setting out plants caused a lot of plants to become rootbound. Nowhere was this more evident than with my artichoke experiment. My 10 Emerald plants, which I started from seed in February, never took off once I finally got them in the ground in June. They are currently about 16" tall, reasonably healthy but not vigorous and certainly not flowering... despite my painstaking care in attempting to vernalize them in the spring. I'm curious as to what folks think I should do with them at this point. Will they exhibit greater growth in their second season? Or are they doomed to runtiness (made that up) for their lifespan? If it's worth giving them another year, how should I care for them over the winter months? I'd say our temps are in the 20's most of the winter with a week or 2 of aughts and teens thrown in to spice things up. Occasionally a subzero day. Last winter was the first in a while with consistent snow cover over the winter months. Having endured the first year of a perennial lifecycle, it'd sure be nice to enjoy a harvest next season! Your thoughts are appreciated. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by theforgottenone1013 5b/6a MI (My Page) on Tue, Sep 23, 14 at 14:00
| I'm in the same boat as you are. I planted artichokes for the first time this year, they got to a certain size and stalled out, and I got no 'chokes from them. As for overwintering them, I'm going to pile on a thick layer of leaves later in the fall and then put a tarp over top of the leaves to keep them dry and to insulate them more. Hopefully it works. Rodney |
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- Posted by Slimy_Okra 2b (My Page) on Tue, Sep 23, 14 at 14:05
| What Rodney said. Mulch and lots of it. What kills overwintering plants in general is not the deep cold of mid-winter (which is typically accompanied by deep snow cover in temperate zones) but the freeze-thaw cycles of late winter and early spring. Keep the mulch on until the soil thaws completely and nights don't drop below 20 degrees anymore. |
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