Globe artichoke · Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
When to plant globe artichokes in Halifax
Main outdoor window
7 May - 4 Jun
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
23 April
In Halifax, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jul - 30 Sep
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Halifax
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.
Start indoors
26 Feb - 26 Mar
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
7 May - 4 Jun
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jul - 30 Sep
Globe artichokes through the year
Against the frost risk in Halifax
Why these dates
Start indoors 8 weeks before the last frost and plant out after it, or buy offsets. First-year plants give a token crop; the second and third years are the productive ones. Replace with offsets in the fourth.
The crown survives to about -10C with a dry mulch over it, considerably less in wet ground. In cold regions it is often lifted or heavily covered.
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. Globe artichokes 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 Halifax.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Halifax is zone 7a, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
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 Halifax
Other vegetables to time
Growing globe artichokes in Halifax
When should I plant globe artichokes in Halifax?
Aim for 7 May - 4 Jun in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 15 May - 12 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will globe artichokes be ready to harvest in Halifax?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jul - 30 Sep, based on 150 to 180 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will globe artichokes tolerate?
The crown survives to about -10C with a dry mulch over it, considerably less in wet ground. In cold regions it is often lifted or heavily covered.