Artichokes on hold for about 2 months

Hello,

Early February, I planted in pots a few artichoke seeds. 4 of them grew, and I planted them about two months ago. However, for the past two months, they have not changed at all. They had a few leaves eaten here and there, but it's as if they stopped growing. I don't water a lot, however I'm not seeing any leave wilting, and there are still some rain, which should at the very least make them grow a bit even for a few days, as far as I know.

Here's a picture of the three artichokes (I had to replace one, as it had been completely eaten):



Is there anything I can do to help them grow ? What did I miss ? The soil is clay-ish, but had grass growing before I tilled the spot. I didn't add much organic content or compost.

Or should I just dig them up, throw them in the compost, and plant something else now ?

Conventional instructions for planting artichokes emphasize the need for compost and fertilizer.
The days to maturity are 100-150 and most do not flower until the second year of growth.
I'm not clear in what climate you are in,  or what variety of artichokes you have,  but I think your plants need lots of  time and lots of nitrogen rich compost.

I have some artichokes on my property. One is in its 2nd year and the other 2 are in their 1st. The new ones haven't grown much--the older 1 did the same last year during this same time. But the older 1 is now taking off and has gotten huge and I'm hoping for a good harvest this year from it. If the new ones do what the first one did they will start growing soon and get fairly large but they likely won't take off until their 2nd year. At this point the new ones are just sitting there for the most part--I'm assuming they're putting their energy into growing a big taproot.

Based on my limited experience with artichokes I would guess that yours will be slow this year and then get going next year.

Well I already knew that they would only fruit next year, but I didn't expect them to be that slow.

So I've added some composted horse manure and some other source of nitrogen, hopefully that'll help them grow. Thanks you for your replies, I'll keep you tuned.

My sister-in-law gave me an artichoke plant, we dug up beside the parent plant. I couldn't  plant it until the next day.  All the leaves have died. I keep watering it, but it has been about a month with no new growth.  Is it a goner,  or is there still some hope?

Well, I am clearly not an expert on the subject, but adding some manure around them, as well as some diluted urine seemed to have helped them grow more leaves. It hasn't been long, and there have been a lot of rain recently, and they seem to grow more than previously, I'll probably need to add more nitrogen to them.

I'd say you should try that. Adding compost, manure, whatever that got nitrogen in it and will be absorbed by the plant.

However if there are no leaves at all, you can't be sure if it's dead, unless you are willing to dig it up and inspect the root, which would probably kill if it's still alive. I'd say, try the fertilizing thing, then wait for a while for new growth. It's been about ten days for me, perhaps it would take as long for you, possibly longer.

My artichokes are also fairly slow growing, and were when I grew the first ones from seed. I make divisions now, to increase plant numbers. This year they got some wood chips/chicken manure top dressing. They seem a little more vigorous than previously.

I’m expecting globes from most of these new divisions next year, not this year.