Agronomic behaviour of seed propagated artichoke cultivars in the spanish mediterranean area

Abstract

Seeds of eight cultivars of globe artichoke (‘Imperial Star’; ‘A-107’; ‘A-109’; ‘Harmony’, formerly ‘Nun-3031’; ‘Nun-3007’, ‘Madrigal’, formerly ‘Nun-9444’; ‘Prelude’ and ‘Concert’) were sown in polystyrene trays on the 24th May 2002 and planted on the 30th June, in soil in south Valencia, Spain. The asexually propagated cultivar ‘Blanca de Tudela’ served as control. Three replicates of 9 plants per cultivar were arranged in a completely randomized design. All cultivars were sprayed three times every 2 weeks with 30 mg L-1 of gibberellic acid (GA3) starting on the 29th September 2002. Harvest started on the 7th November 2002 for the cultivars ‘Blanca de Tudela’, ‘I. Star’ and ‘Harmony’; on the 18th November for the ‘A-107’ and ‘Prelude’ cultivars and on the 12th December 2002 for the remaining cultivars. At the end of December the most productive cultivar was ‘Harmony’ (0.71 kg m-2) (p≤0.01), and ‘Imperial Star’ was also more productive than the other cultivars. By the end of February 2003 the most productive cultivars were ‘I. Star’ (1.02 kg m-2), ‘Harmony’ (0.90 kg m-2) and ‘Nun-3007’ (0.92 kg m-2). At the end of the experiment (May 2003) the highest yields were obtained in ‘Madrigal’ (3.03 kg m-2), followed by ‘Nun-3007’ (2.63 kg m-2), ‘Harmony’ (2.23 kg m-2) and ‘I. Star’ (2.18 kg m-2). The average weight of artichoke heads was higher in ‘Concert’ (242 g) and ‘Nun-3007’ (242 g) by the end of December 2002. At the end of February heads were larger in ‘Madrigal’ (189 g), ‘A-109’ (177 g), ‘Concert’ (176 g) and ‘Nun-3007’ (157 g) while at the end of the experiment in ‘Nun-3007’ (160 g), ‘Concert’ (147 g), ‘Madrigal’ (144 g) and ‘Concert’ (132 g). The highest percentage of non-marketable heads was for the cultivar ‘A-107’, which was especially affected by excessively open bracts.