Cardoon · Rabat, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Morocco
When to plant cardoons in Rabat
Main outdoor window
not outdoors here
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
no spring frost
In Rabat, on your chosen risk.
First autumn frost
no autumn frost
The far end of the outdoor season.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Rabat
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Cardoons through the year
Against the frost risk in Rabat
Why these dates
As for globe artichoke: about -10C with a dry crown.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Cardoons are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Rabat.
Rabat sits in zone 11b, which is milder than this crop wants, and a winter that never really arrives is its own problem. The dates below still describe the right time of year; the open question is survival rather than timing.
Do not expect a crop in the first year. A plant set out now should give its first worthwhile pick around year 2, and will then produce every year after that, which is what makes the planting decision worth getting right the first time.
Also in Rabat
Other vegetables to time
Growing cardoons in Rabat
How much frost will cardoons tolerate?
As for globe artichoke: about -10C with a dry crown.