burdock, arctium lappa, when during it's second year does it go to seed?

I planted seed here several years ago and did not dig roots, just saved some seed from the next years plants and replanted...
I thought it had disappeared but here it is in a spot where I did not plant any

I saw the young plants sometime last year so assumed that this year it would go to seed although there's no sign of a flower stalk.

The leaves are huge!  The fence posts behind it are 5' for scale.

Maybe I should have dug some this spring?
When does burdock normally go to seed?

I really want to use the root but it seems like I'm just out of sync with this plant.

I avoid burdock because I don't want the burs.   I do have curly dock which makes a seed stalk in late summer and make seeds that look like coffee grounds.  Being biennial it produces the seed stalk the second year.  So the root is best harvested between when the leaves die back and when it starts to leaf out and use its stored nutrients.  Never saw a burdock as big as the one in your picture.

Oh, about now. The soft green burs open a tiny bit exposing a burgundy-pink center. Then they turn into the brown sticky burs. Once the stalk grows, the root isn't good eating. Eat The Weeds article here.

i have a burdock plant that has been out there for at least 3 years and so far, no flowers. No idea why, maybe not having a hard frost has screwed up its instincts. Where I went to school in upstate NY I remember seeing huge burdock with flowers and burs, especially near swampy areas, when I would go hiking in late June or July on summer trips.

thanks Joylynn and Tereza and Hans!

I think I'll dig one then...

It's two or three plants so there would still be some to leave for seed and I am anxious to see the size of the root and it's edibility.

I have also been eyeing the huge leaves for a wrap for fermenting tempeh rather than the glass pyrex that I use.  

dug two.
flavor good but too woody to eat...will dry for decoction and vegetable broth.

There are several plants...none show signs of going to seed.

I just bought another bundle of gobo root to plant out.
It's the domesticated version of burdock.
I built a little tower of milk crates to grow them in this time, to make harvest easy.

I love the idea of using roots that are too tough to chew as ingredients in broths.

William Bronson wrote: I just bought another bundle of gobo root to plant out.
It's the domesticated version of burdock.

All my burdock is the tops of purchased gobo that i put in the ground (like a carrot top). It takes really well if there are still leaves left and the weather is right-- then you get to have your gobo and eat it too!!

have been looking for gobo...

and now my burdock is going to seed!

Sometimes root vegetables or biennials will take three years, depending on the seeding and germination time, and how much energy they have. Angelica is considered to take three normally, because it takes that long for them to harvest the energy so that they can send up their gigantic flower stalk. Burdock may be the same in weedy conditions. I have noticed this happening with parsnip, too. If they germinate late summer through fall, they will make a small root and then overwinter. By the next fall they are enormous. The flower stalks made by such a parsnip plant, if I let them grow, are walking sticks (or would be if they didn’t burn you).

White lettuce (Prenanthes) can apparently take ten years before they have collected enough energy to send up their magnificent flower stalk, and then die.

Burdock leaf might be good for tempeh. It might also make it intolerably bitter for those not used to bitter flavors. Or it could be very nice. The bitter can rub off on the hands and make all sorts of things taste bitter. Sam Thayer gives a story about taking people on a foraging walk and showing them burdock. Then he takes them to a mulberry tree and they start eating mulberries. People start remarking on how bitter the mulberries taste…