Endive actually looks like lettuce,
but it does not taste like lettuce. This plant and is cousin, escarole, are tasting
greens that are very popular in Europe. Although endive has deeply cut, curly
leaves, while escarole has broad, smooth-leaves. This two plants (Endive and escarole)
form loose heads with tender white leaves and stems in the center.
When to plant Endive
Endive is actually a cool season crop
and that grows best with temperatures in the 60Fs. Planting Endive in warm
temperatures will not only make the greens bolt (form a flower stalk), but also
make it to taste more bitter. Make sure you plant Endive three weeks before
your last frost date — April and May. You can grow a fall crop sowing seeds or
transplants in late summer for an autumn harvest. To get a jump on the season
you can also start seedlings indoors three to four weeks before your planting
date.
Where to plant Endive
This plant really grows best in full
sun. Endive can actually tolerate only two to three hours of sun a day and
still produce an edible plant, although the heads will not be well formed. Endive
actually needs a well-drained, moist soil. By peradventure if you are growing
on a heavy soil, try to consider planting on an eight inch tall and three foot
wide, raised bed.
How to plant Endive
Make sure you amend the soil with
compost and then sow the seeds 1 inch apart in rows spaced 18 inches apart. You
can transplant seedlings to seven to eight inches apart in rows. You can also cover
the small seeds with sand or potting soil to keep them consistently moist, so that
they can germinate very well.
Care and maintenance of
plant
Immediately the seeds germinate, you
can thin them. You can use the thinnings in salads. Make sure you keep thinning
until the heads are spaced seven inches apart in the rows. Make sure you keep
the beds well watered. By peradventure if the bed dries out, the heads will
become bitterer flavored. Make sure you hand weed and also mulch with a layer
of straw or untreated grass clippings. You can fertilize the young seedlings
with fish emulsion after thinning and again in three weeks later.
Endive is actually not as attractive
to pests as lettuce, although it still has its share of problems. Woodchucks and
Rabbits actually love the young greens, you can make a fence to keep these
critters out. Also aphids feed on the tender leaves. You can spray insecticidal
soap to ward them off. Also slugs and snails will like to munch on the leaves. You
can use beer traps to catch and kill them, copper flashing, sharp sand, or
crushed sea or oyster shells to ward them off, and iron phosphate bait to lure
and kill them. Make sure you space the plants properly to avoid rot diseases.
How to harvest Endive
You can pick young Endive leaves as
baby greens when they’re at least two inches long. You can also pick young
heads about forty to fifty days after planting by harvesting the young outer
leaves. Make sure you allow some of the heads to mature to full size in about sixty
to eight days and then cut the whole head to the ground for cooking.
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