ISHS Acta Horticulturae 318: II International Symposium on Specialty and Exotic Vegetable Crops
GROWING GLOBE ARTICHOKES FROM SEED |
| Authors: | G. E. Welbaum, Steven C. Warfield |
| Abstract:
The globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) is a herbaceous, perennial dicot grown for its immature flower bud. Globe artichokes are usually propagated vegetatively from root divisions or offshoots, because plants grown from seed generally lack uniformity. Furthermore, only a small percentage of plants grown from seed flower during the first season without vernalization. The globe artichoke is not winter hardy and cannot be successfully grown outdoors as a perennial in areas where winter temperatures are consistently below - 10°C. The cultivar 'Imperial Star' reportedly produces uniform plants from seed and a high percentage of buds the first year without vernalization. In this study, 'Imperial Star' (IS) and 'Green Globe' (GG) were evaluated for their ability to produce a fall crop from seed without vernalization. Eight-week-old transplants were set in the field on 14 May 1991. The harvest period began on 12 August for both cultivars and ended on 28 September and 8 November for GG and IS, respectively. Eighty-one percent of the IS produced buds compared to 25% for GG. The average bud yield per plant was 12 for IS and 9 for GG. Ten and 9% of the buds were rated as off-type for IS and GG, respectively. Both cultivars produced a high percentage of small buds. The average bud weight was 77 and 80 grams for IS and GG, respectively. Only 54 and 49% of the IS and GG buds, respectively, exceeded the minimum acceptable of 75 grams. The percent marketable yield for IS was 46% and 42% for GG. The estimated marketable yield was 54,600 and 4,800 buds per hectare for IS and GG, respectively. 'Imperial Star' is a significant improvement over GG plants grown from seed. Despite this improvement, IS lacked the consistency and quality of artichokes produced from vegetatively propagated plants. | |
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