Artichokes and Those Nasty Little Black Bugs

Q. I contacted you earlier about my artichoke and tiny black bugs. I applied a solution of Garden Safe Neem Oil as a spray.  Hosed it down a couple times so cut off the top few inches of leaves.  No pests since then. The main plant is dying and there are several suckers growing.  I have been looking online for care of the plant.

A. Care for artichokes going in the desert is different from other locales. In my opinion, artichokes are very “dirty” plants. In other words, they have a lot of different insect and disease “issues”. The main problems I had was with aphids in the spring and whiteflies during the summer but all of them collecting on the bottoms of the leaves. I think this plant is dirtier than sunflowers!

Artichoke leaves at the base of the plant turning yellow because of aphids during the spring. Later whiteflies will become the major problem. You have to stay on top of spraying them if you going to keep them clean.You will find these critters on the undersides of the leaves.

            Those little black bugs were probably aphids. Aphids love artichokes! The problem with Neem Oil is the quality of the oil. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. If you have found a good brand that works for you, stay with it.

            I also like insecticidal soap sprays for aphids. Both are nonselective so they kill just about every insect which is sprayed; good bugs as well as bad bugs so be careful where you apply them.

            Both of them usually require repeat applications a few days apart to keep levels of these pests manageable. Aphids don't like hot temperatures so their numbers decrease during the heat of the summer and are much easier to control then.

            Remove some of the artichoke leaves if they are too close together. Remove them at the base of the plant. This helps air to circulate around leaves which is important in disease prevention and insects are much easier to control.

            Artichoke plants don’t like the desert; temperatures are too high, the sunlight too intense and the soils are horrible. Artichoke plants look pretty bad during the summer months because of our desert climate. They perk up quite nicely in the fall and spring months.

            Do as much as you can to grow artichokes in an environment closer to their ideal; provide protection from the late afternoon sun, improve the soil with compost at planting time and apply organic mulch to the soil surface surrounding them. I have not done it, but I suspect they will perform better under about 30% shade.

            We eat their flower buds before they become flowers. For this reason, this plant benefits from a spring application of phosphorus just like tomatoes, roses, squash and cucumbers.