2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Cardon, or Spanish artichoke (lat. Cynara cardunculus) - a perennial plant of the Asteraceae family, or Asteraceae. Currently, cardon is widely cultivated in Europe and Asia. In Russia, it is grown on personal household plots. Under natural conditions, the plant is found in southern Europe and North Africa. In appearance, the cardon is similar to an artichoke, it differs only in highly developed leaf petioles and in height. They use the culture as a vegetable, eat fleshy leaf stalks, but only after bleaching.
Characteristics of culture
Cardon is a herbaceous plant up to 1 m high. The leaves are green or grayish-green, dissected, doubly pinnate, with serrated lobed segments, pubescent below, less often prickly. Inflorescence is a basket, up to 12 cm in diameter, usually formed in the second year of life. Corolla five-part, tubular, blue or blue-violet color. The fruit is a large achene, smooth, quadrangular or flattened. The seeds remain similar for up to 7 years.
Growing conditions
For growing crops, fertile, moderately moist, well-cultivated soils with a neutral pH are preferred. Waterlogged, heavy clayey soils, as well as areas with a close occurrence of groundwater are not suitable. Cardon is photophilous, it has a negative attitude towards shading. Failure to comply with the growing conditions promises to obtain a poor-quality crop.
Reproduction and sowing
Cardon is propagated only by seeds. It is advisable to grow the culture in a seedling way, in this case the plants have time to form fleshy stems and good foliage before the onset of stable frosts.
Cardon is sown in the second half of April in seedling boxes filled with fertile and well-moisturized soil. Before this period, sowing a crop should not be, as this threatens with premature formation of flowers and, accordingly, seeds. In this case, the petioles do not have time to fully form, they become rough and unsuitable for food.
For winter consumption, cardon is sown in the third decade of May directly into open ground. The seeding depth is 2.5-3 cm. Three seeds are placed in one hole, and then weak plants are removed, leaving one in the hole. The distance between plants should be 60-80 cm, and between rows - 1 m.
Care and harvest
In general, caring for cardon is not difficult, it consists in systematic and moderate watering, as well as in fertilizing with complex mineral fertilizers and slurry. Fertilizers are applied at least once every two weeks. Watering plays an important role in the formation of fleshy stems; in no case should the soil be allowed to dry out.
Harvested in the fall before the onset of frost. Dry lower leaves are removed from plants, small leaves with petioles of medium thickness are cut, tied in a bundle and wrapped in any light-proof material, for example, in paper. Wet leaves collected after rain or early in the morning with dewdrops should not be tied, they will begin to rot. In this state, the petioles and leaves are kept for a month. For winter storage, the petioles are laid out in a dark and cold room with good air ventilation, where they bleach on their own.
With the onset of the first frost, the plants are dug up with an earthen lump, placed in a container with sand, without pressing against each other, and brought into the storage, which is regularly ventilated. Specimens with thick petioles and healthy leaves are selected for seeds, they are kept in a cellar or basement at a temperature of 0-2C, and in the spring they are sorted out, regrown shoots are removed and planted in the ground under a film or in pots, followed by transplantation.
