How to Grow Endive in Australia

Endive (Cichorium endivia) is a leafy salad vegetable in the daisy family, Asteraceae, grown for its crisp, slightly bitter leaves and pale hearts. It comes in two forms: curled endive, or frisée, with finely cut leaves, and broad-leaved escarole, which looks like a loose lettuce and tastes milder. Neither is the pale, pointed witlof sold as Belgian endive, which is a forced chicory (Cichorium intybus). Endive takes light frost and cold, wet weather well, so it can keep a salad bowl going through winter. Most failures come from sowing it into heat.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Sowing into long, hot days. Endive sown in spring in warm districts often runs to flower before it hearts up, and its leaves turn tough and bitter. Make late summer and autumn the main sowing, and choose 'Salad King' for any spring sowing.
2. Letting the soil dry out. A dry spell makes leaves bitter and tough and can push plants into flower. Keep the soil evenly moist from planting to harvest, as set out in Care by growth stage.
3. Blanching wet heads, or all of them at once. Leaves tied up while damp can rot from the inside, and a blanched heart spoils within days of being ready. Blanch only dry plants, a few at a time, as described in Harvesting Leaves.

When to plant

Endive seed germinates best in soil between 15°C and 25°C, usually in 4 to 7 days. In most zones that points to late summer and autumn, with a second window from late winter into spring where summers are mild. Sow a few cells every two to three weeks through the window, so heads come ready in turn.

At the hot end of a window, sow in cell trays in a shaded spot and plant out once the heat eases. At the cold end, raise seedlings under cover, because young plants chilled below about 5°C for long spells may bolt (flower early) later.

Site, soil and setup

Rotate endive with crops from other families, such as beans, carrots or brassicas. Lettuce downy mildew can survive in the soil. Where it has appeared, keep endive, lettuce and chicory out of that bed for two to three years.

Container growing

Endive grows well in a pot, which can be moved into shade on a hot afternoon. Grow one head in a pot at least 30 cm across and 20 cm deep (about 12 L). A 40 cm pot of about 30 L holds three. Use premium potting mix, and choose 'Green Curled Ruffec' or 'Batavian Broadleaf' rather than the large 'Salad King'.

• Water: check pots daily in warm weather and water before the mix dries out.
• Feed: from two weeks after planting, fish and seaweed blend at 25 mL per 9 L, fortnightly.
• Position: full sun through the cool months; move the pot into afternoon shade during hot spells.

Sowing Seeds

Raise endive in cell trays and plant it out, or sow it where it is to grow and thin it.

Choosing a variety

Starting in trays

• Sow two seeds per cell of seed-raising mix, 5 mm deep.
• Keep the mix moist but not wet; seedlings usually emerge in 4 to 7 days.
• Snip the weaker seedling in each cell at mix level.
• Plant out at 3 to 6 weeks, with three or four true leaves and 5 to 10 cm of growth.
• Harden them off first (a week of gradually longer spells outdoors); see hardening off seedlings.

Sowing direct

• Rake the bed to a fine surface and water it the day before.
• Sow two or three seeds per station, 5 mm deep, with stations at the spacing in Thinning and rows 50 cm apart.
• Keep the surface damp until the seedlings are up.
• Thin to the strongest seedling at each station once they have two true leaves.

Care by growth stage

Steady growth decides how sweet endive tastes: plants that stall, dry out or sit in heat turn bitter. Weeks count from sowing.

Water at the base in the morning rather than over the leaves. Water caught in the heart can rot it, and leaves that stay wet overnight invite downy mildew. Once plants are growing strongly, mulch with straw, keeping it clear of the crown.

Thinning

Thin early, because crowded endive grows poorly and holds damp air around its leaves. Spacing depends on the variety and on whether you want heads or baby leaves.

• Snip unwanted seedlings at soil level rather than pulling them, and add them to a salad.
• Remove yellowing or chewed outer leaves at the base, so air moves around the crown.
• Pull any plant that sends up a flower stalk, since its leaves turn very bitter.
• Weed by hand and shallowly: endive roots sit near the surface and compete poorly with weeds.

Companion planting

Endive does best beside plants from other families, which share neither its aphids nor its downy mildew.

Grows well with

• Carrots, from another family, with slim tops that neither shade nor crowd endive.
• Cabbage, sown in the same cool months, so a bed can be planted and rotated together.
• Rocket, a quick cool-season brassica that shares none of endive's pests.
• Dwarf beans, low-growing and from another family, which follow endive well in rotation.

Keep apart

• Lettuce, which shares currant-lettuce aphid and downy mildew, so side-by-side plantings pass both along.
• Chicory, including radicchio and witlof, for the same aphid and disease.

Harvesting Leaves

Pick outer leaves from about 10 weeks after sowing. Cut whole heads once the centre is full and firm, usually at 11 to 14 weeks.

Blanching

Blanching shuts light out of the heart for the last one to three weeks before harvest. The inner leaves turn pale, tender and milder.

1. On a dry day, once the dew has lifted, choose a few plants with nearly full heads.
2. Gather the outer leaves up over the heart and tie them loosely with soft twine. On a flat frisée, a dinner plate laid over the centre does the same job.
3. Or cover the whole plant with a large upturned pot, its drainage holes blocked.
4. Check under the cover every few days for snails and rot.
5. Cut the head when the centre is creamy pale, usually after about two weeks, longer in cool weather.

Picking

• Pick in the morning, while the leaves are crisp.
• For a steady supply, snap a few outer leaves off at the base and leave the centre growing.
• For a whole head, cut the stem at ground level with a sharp knife.
• Strip off the tough green outer leaves; the pale centre has the best flavour and texture.
• Pick every mature head if very hot weather or a hard frost is forecast.

Endive keeps for up to a week in the fridge. Wrap it loosely in a damp tea towel, place it in a perforated bag in the crisper, and wash it just before use.

Use the pale hearts in salads with a well-flavoured dressing, and grill or braise the outer leaves, which mellow as they wilt.

Common problems

Seed slow or patchy to come up. Endive germinates poorly in soil outside the range in When to plant, and seed buried too deep may never emerge. Sow in cells, 5 mm deep, and keep the mix evenly moist.

Seedlings collapsing. Damping off (a soil-borne rot of seedlings) pinches the stem at soil level, most often in wet mix. Use fresh seed-raising mix and water the soil, not the seedlings. Read more

Bitter leaves despite watering. Beyond dry soil, covered in Three mistakes, plants turn bitter when they grow slowly, meet heat or are picked too late. Feed as in Care by growth stage, pick on time and blanch before harvest.

Heads that never fill. Warm weather, or slow growth from too little water or food, leaves the centre loose and open. In warm zones, sow for autumn and winter harvests.

Brown, slimy rot at the base. Bottom rot, a soil-borne fungal disease, starts as red-brown spots on lower leaves touching the soil, then turns the base slimy. Improve drainage, water less often and rotate beds.

Pests and diseases

Snails and aphids do most of the damage, and both hide under the leaves and inside the heart. Use only sprays whose label names endive or leafy vegetables, and keep to any withholding period.

Garden snail (Cornu aspersum). Snails, and slugs with them, chew ragged holes in leaves and leave slime trails, mostly at night and in wet weather. Collect them by torchlight, use beer traps, or scatter an iron-based snail bait. Read more

Currant-lettuce aphid (Nasonovia ribisnigri). These aphids are 2 to 3 mm long and range from yellow or green to pink or red. They colonise the heart and leaf undersides, curling and stunting leaves and leaving sticky honeydew. Sprays struggle to reach them in the heart, so hose small colonies off early or spray insecticidal soap. Read more

Downy mildew (Bremia lactucae). Light green to yellow, angular spots form on the upper leaf, with white growth beneath, in cool, humid weather. The spores need leaves wet for three to four hours, so space plants well, water at the base and remove affected leaves. Read more

Cutworm (Agrotis species). Young transplants are cut through at ground level overnight, and the hairless caterpillar hides in the soil or under debris by day. Scratch the soil around the stump to find and remove it. Read more

Prevention first

• Pull sowthistle and prickly lettuce near the bed; both harbour downy mildew or currant-lettuce aphid.
• Weed the bed three to four weeks before planting, so cutworms have nothing to feed on.
• Clear boards, pots and leaf litter from around the bed, where snails shelter by day.
• Look into the heart and under the leaves weekly, and act on the first aphids.

Tips

1. For quick salad leaves, sow a pot or short row thickly, thin to 5 cm apart and start cutting after about a month. Plants usually give two or more pickings.
2. In cool zones, time an autumn sowing so heads are ready as the first frosts arrive. A light frost can sweeten the leaves.
3. Sow a few spare cells and keep the seedlings for a fortnight, ready to fill any gap that snails or cutworms leave.