632003 Fri Jun 26 16:09:17 -0700 2009 12 62 Gardening 0 4809601 Any advice? We were finished with the first crop of the year as of a couple of weeks ago, and I know I need to prune if I want another crop in the fall (and I do!). How much should I take off? Any rules of thumb? Fri Jun 26 16:09:17 -0700 2009 138816 jlafler 1 4812719 I'm afraid I don't know the answer BUT I did read somewhere recently that when you prune your artichokes, save any thick stems/leaf veins you cut off. If you peel off the tough outer skin, you can eat them like cardoons. It should taste like artichoke hearts. Yum! Sun Jun 28 08:45:45 -0700 2009 4809601 10431 Gooseberry 1 4816714 I only grew a couple of plants for about 3 years, so I'm no expert, but I don't think you prune artichokes the way you would a bush. Harvesting the flowers will encourage the growth of more flowers. It doesn't matter how much stem you cut off, but as gooseberry noted, they are quite tasty once you peel them. They make a nice artichoke soup (be sure to peel severely to get rid of the strings). At some point as winter approaches you will see the plants start to go dormant (leaves wilting, no new growth). That's when you cut everything off an inch or two above the soil surface. I'm not sure if this really has any effect other than making your garden look well maintained, but that's what they say to do. As a rule of thumb don't cut any leaves during the growing season. Mon Jun 29 19:18:39 -0700 2009 4809601 53530 Zeldog 1 4818009 Hmm. My plants also have finished producing and are dying back on their own. The stalks and leaves are discolored and ugly so I was planning on cutting them down all the way to the ground. Since the leaves are growing out of the stalk, I don't see how you could just prune *some* of the plant. Usually, with fertilizer, some pretty, new leaves appear soon, but I've never had a second crop in the fall. Hope this helps. Tue Jun 30 09:21:28 -0700 2009 4809601 11231 Glencora 1 4819251 Thanks for the feedback. I pruned the most discolored of the leaves today, and that left one plant pretty bare, so I think I'm just going to cut it all the way back to the ground and see what happens. On the other plant (which is larger and gave us a massive crop of 'chokes this spring), I noticed that there are some new little shoots springing up around the roots of the plant. I'm going to keep an eye on them; maybe that's where I'll get my fall crop. If I do, that would certainly be an argument in favor of just cutting the whole plant back. Most of the leaves I took off didn't look too appetizing, and when I tried to peel the stems they seemed like nothing *but* strings, so I'm afraid I'm not going to get much, if anything, out of the leaves (except a lot of good compost). Tue Jun 30 15:11:51 -0700 2009 4809601 138816 jlafler 2 4831590 Our artichokes got earwigs. The first one that was infested we cut off all the leaves and cut the stalk down to about 18 inches -- it now has new leaves growing up from the stalk. The second one is about to undergo the same treatment, hopefully with the same result (and no more earwigs!). Sun Jul 05 16:50:43 -0700 2009 4819251 10159 Ruth Lafler 3 4837808 We had a gazillion earwigs, too, but I don't think they harm the artichokes; as far as I understand it, they like to live on artichoke plants because there are usually lots of aphids for them to eat, and the artichokes themselves are nice, cool, dark places to hide. I would often have 4 or 5 earwigs exit an artichoke as I was trimming it, but see no evidence that they had damaged the artichoke in any way. Earwigs are pests in other parts of the garden, and they are certainly creepy -- I would always jump when one scuttled out while I was trimming my choke. And I did take to doing the trimming outside to keep them out of the house. Tue Jul 07 17:20:02 -0700 2009 4831590 138816 jlafler 4 4895317 Well, something was eating the artichoke leaves! Anyway, to report further, we cut them both down to the ground and they're both sprouting. The leaves on the first one we cut down are alreadly about a foot high! The one we cut back later is just starting to re-sprout. More artichokes! Yeah! Mon Jul 27 16:30:15 -0700 2009 4837808 10159 Ruth Lafler 1 4819918 I just cut mine back to the ground and they grow up again, producing a second crop of smaller artichokes. Tue Jun 30 19:32:53 -0700 2009 4809601 17969 rainey 1 4901659 Update: I cut both plants back to the ground about a month ago. The plant that was already sprouting before I pruned it is coming back beautifully -- it's now about knee-high and very vigorous. The other one has yet to sprout. I put some fertilizer on it a couple of days ago, which I hope will get it started. Cross fingers. Wed Jul 29 16:37:59 -0700 2009 4809601 138816 jlafler 2 4935313 Update update: I had pretty much given up hope that the recalcitrant artichoke would sprout and was starting to contemplate propagation using the shoots from the productive plant. But lo! this morning, a miracle: three small shoots near the base of the cut-off stumps of the old plant. Yay!!! Mon Aug 10 21:00:18 -0700 2009 4901659 138816 jlafler 3 5035070 Update update update: There are now four little artichokes on the larger plant! The smaller plant is going strong, but not bearing yet. Wed Sep 16 14:41:56 -0700 2009 4935313 138816 jlafler 1 5141747 Here's some useful info on growing artichokes (intended for commercial growers in CA, but useful to home gardeners as well): http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/7221.pdf Thu Oct 29 18:29:33 -0700 2009 4809601 110686 nowhereonearth