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Home > Guides > Vegetables > Endive |
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How to Grow Endive | Guide to Growing Endive |
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Overview |
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Flat-leaved varieties are known as escarole, these cool-season greens are known for their sharp, bitter taste. More tolerant of heat and cold than lettuce, frilly-leaved endive makes an attractive addition to ornamental plantings. |
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Growing Guide
GROWING NOTES
Partial shade beneficial in hot weather.
Biennial grown as an annual.
MAINTAINING
Like lettuce and other cool-season greens, endive needs short days and cool temperatures.
Direct seed ¼-inch deep in rows 18 inches apart 2 to 4 weeks before average last frost. Make succession plantings for continuous harvest. Thin to 8 to 12 inches.
For extra-early crops, start seed inside 6 to 8 weeks before last frost. Transplant into garden about 2 weeks before last frost.
To prevent plants from going to seed (bolting), keep them well-watered and shaded when temperatures are above 75 F. Mulch to retain moisture and suppress weeds.
For fall harvests, direct seed in garden about 2 to 3 months before expected fall frost. Light frost enhances flavor.
Blanch heading varieties for a milder flavor. A week or so before harvest, pull outer leaves over head and tie. Make sure leaves are dry to avoid rot. Other blanching alternatives include placing a flower pot over the plant, or covering with a cardboard disk or plastic container. Self-blanching varieties are available. Close plant spacing (about 8 inches) encourages self-blanching.
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Harvesting Guide
HARVESTING
Harvest is usually by hand and the greens are packed into cartons in the field. Keep the leafy items clean, free of soil and mud. Ideally these crops have a spicy and mildly bitter taste. A strong bitter taste, and toughness, develops if harvest is delayed or if crop is over-mature, and then the product become unmarketable.
SAVING SEEDS
Cut open a ripe and shriveling eggplant and cube it into pieces about thumb size. Place the cubes in a colander over a pan and sprinkle with some kitchen salt. Toss the cubes to coat evenly with the salt and begin mashing and squeezing them with your hands. This removes much water from the cubes....it will also releases the seeds from the flesh.
Rinse the seeds off the cubes and they'll slip through the colander into the catching pan. Immature seeds will float atop the water. Pour off the floating seeds and any loose bits of eggplant flesh, add more water and stir again to separate the good from the bad. Repeat this step as needed.
Use a small kitchen strainer to sieve the seeds from the water, rinse them well to remove any salt. Spread the seeds in a single layer on a coffee filter for drying. They should dry for at least two or three days, about a week or longer if the weather is damp.
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