Improved White Cardoon is a hardy and vigorous variety, with no thorns. It has an upright shape, jagged foliage, and a wide, fleshy cardoon.
This variety whitens easily and keeps very well.
Cardoons can be eaten cooked, in their own juice, in a gratin, or with a white sauce. The flower heads can also be eaten as with artichokes.

Successful Sowing of Cardoon

Sowing: in pots in April, or directly in place in mid-May. Transplant, when the plants have 3-4 leaves, in deep soil rich in organic matter, 1 m in the row and 1.5 m between rows. Harvest 5 to 7 months after sowing.

Planting in the Vegetable Garden

Cardoons, from the same family as artichokes, have an average height of 1.5-2 m, take this into account when planting in the vegetable garden as it will need space.

Cardoon cultivation

From the end of September, raise the plant, bundle the leaves, and hill them up to a depth of 30 cm. Mulch the cardoons. Water in case of a dry spring or summer. If there are repeated frosts, the foliage may disappear.

Harvest

Cut the large leaves as you eat them, like chard.
You can also eat the flower heads at the beginning of summer, like artichokes.