PlantSowGrow
How to grow Chinese Artichoke (Crosnes)
Stachys affinis
🥕 Vegetable
🌱 Grown each year
Little pearly, ridged tubers with a nutty, crunchy taste, eaten raw or quickly sautéed. A mint relative that is very easy to grow.
At a glance: Sow mid March to late April, harvest from mid October.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Harvest
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Chinese Artichoke (Crosnes): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water in dry spells, especially as crops swell
- Soil
- Moist, fertile soil
- Spacing
- 30 cm
- In pots
- Only in large containers
- Feeding
- A general fertiliser before planting
- Harvest
- About 210 days from sowing
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–9
Step by step
- Mid March – late April · 4 weeks before the last spring frost
Plant Tubers
Plant tubers 30 cm apart in rows.
- 21–35 days after “Plant Tubers” · Early April – mid April
Look for Shoots
Green shoots should be showing. Keep weeds down — these crops hate competition.
- 210–270 days after “Plant Tubers” · Mid October – mid December
Harvest
Dig from November once the tops die back; lift what you need, as they keep best in the ground.
- 7–21 days after “Harvest” · Mid October – early November
Dry and Store
Use within a few days — they shrivel quickly. Replant a few tubers in spring (they spread, so grow in a bed of their own).
