Since acquiring our land, I dreamt of artichokes. Harvesting bucket LOADS and throwing them up in the air like a dream sequence when someone wins money. End shot would be with my hair up in a romantic style, in full day time television drama makeup and adorned in diamonds whilst sipping my wine in a bathtub full of artichokes.
<DREAM SEQUENCE END>
The reality is, I've never grown an artichoke before and so I went to the library of quick knowledge, YouTube. I realize that I go there a lot, and no, I have never picked up a book. Not that I wouldn't pick up a book and read about all the hundreds of things I want to grow and how to do it, I'm a visual learner. I need to see it in works, real time. So forgive me if I mention it often. I know there are people who scoff at using YouTube to learn homesteading but then again they themselves are putting up videos on 'how to..."
<RANT END>
whew...sorry heh
I watch quite a few videos and some talk about using all these addition to soils and testing soils. Perhaps I should, but right now I have no such things to do so and money is tight in these parts. I HOPE that just enriching the soil with different composts and ensuring it drains well will be ok. You will be going on this journey with me if you stick around.
Seeds I'm using, Purple of Romagna.
I'm starting them indoors in my tiny green house/laundry/pantry/// back porch. Space is tight but my handy hubby made a GREAT seedling shelf with a cedar board taken from our barn.
When I first planted the seeds I used some regular seed start pots. WRONG. Bad. Three days after I had planted the seeds I found out that artichokes need root trainer pots, they have tap roots that go deep. I wasn't going back to the garden center BUT I did have many empty plastic bottles from a free case of water. I went digging in the recycle bin and cut the tops off all the bottles. I used basic potting soil mix and some compost which I sprinkled at the bottom of the bottles.
I then recovered a dozen seeds and placed them in their new homes. A few days later I got three sprouts.
I imagine that germination isn't going to be 100% so I waited a few more days. My curiosity did win out so a couple of days ago I shuffled through the soils and found a couple had rotted and others were too deep. I readjusted a couple and added new seeds to the rotted seed bottles. This morning I discovered a new sprout poking through the soil.
I'm going to give the others another week then I may reuse the soil for other things. Like I said, space is tight. Artichokes should be started indoors 2-3 months before planting outside after threat of frost is gone. In Texas our last frost is usually early maybe late March. Winter here has been rather warm and came really late. I got a feeling that April maybe the true month to plant. Once they have matured in the garden I hear that they will over winter well in Texas, zone 8b.
This weekend I will start tomatoes and peppers along with cucumbers. I will probably change my mind and do it today. I'm so flighty that way. There's a dozen avocado saplings in the green room that need to make their way into our computer room so I have the extra shelf space. I can't wait till we get a real greenhouse!
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