Plant spatial arrangement and production of new cultivars of "seed" propagated artichoke.

Two field trials were conducted in southern Italy on new seed-propagated cultivars of artichokes. Seedlings were planted at the end of July-early August and treated with GA3 60 days after planting. The experiments involved 2 or 3 cultivars ('044', '137' and '271', the latter was available only in the first year) and four plant arrangements, both with single and twin-rows, with almost no variation in plant density (12000 plants ha-1). The spacing in the single row was 120 cm between rows and 70 cm between plants, while for the three twin rows the distances were: 70x70x170 cm 60x60x210 cm and 50x50x280 cm between twin-rows, rows and plants respectively. In the first year, offshoot removal was also performed (intact plant, or 1 or 2 offshoots per plant). The twin-row arrangement (120x70x70), together with the single row provided the best yield, but the larger row spacing used for the twin rows may be preferable because it facilitates access for cultivation purposes. The offshoots removal had no effect on yield and yield components. Among cultivars the '271' gave the higher and earliest yield with the smaller heads. The '044' had the more concentrated maturity.