Globe Artichokes in South Africa and the USDA Hardiness Zone System
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Celeste
Posted on: May 28, 2008

I live in South Africa and am keen to buy a small farm and thought I might grow artichokes.

I don’t understand your zoning. What is a zone 3 and 6? It is a winter rainfall zone?

The zones used in the Richters catalogue, both the print and online versions, are from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) hardiness rating system developed years ago. The system is based on average minimum winter temperatures, which is really only one of several important factors that determine winter hardiness. Other hardiness systems that take into account additional factors such as snow cover, precipitation, summer temperatures, etc. are in use, but the USDA system is by far the most popular one in use today. There are hardiness zone maps on our website; please see:

http://www.richters.com/show.cgi?page=./Zones/zones.html

The summers can average 38 degrees Celsius but it can go up to 40 degrees. In winter it gets, for at least 3 months of the year, very cold, e.g. 3 degrees with snow on the surrounding mountains. In the area they grow a lot of table grapes of high quality. Do you think it is possible to grow artichokes here?

From you climatic data, I would put your area to be zone 10 which is perfect for globe artichoke.

Back to Commercial Herb Production and Marketing | Q & A Index

Copyright © 1997-2024 Otto Richter and Sons Limited. All rights reserved.