Growing Endive in the Home Garden
Endive (Cichorium endivia) is a cool-season salad green with a pleasantly bitter bite. It is in the daisy family, Asteraceae, alongside lettuce, and is a close relative of chicory and radicchio (Cichorium intybus). It comes in two main forms:
- Curly endive or frisée, with narrow, finely cut, frilly leaves.
- Escarole, with broad, smooth or slightly wavy leaves and a milder heart. It holds up well in soups and braises as well as salads.
"Belgian endive", the tight, pale torpedo-shaped heads sold in winter, is not this plant. It is witloof chicory, forced from roots in the dark.
Endive is slower than lettuce but tougher: it tolerates more cold and heat, is less prone to bolting in fall, and survives light frosts that would finish lettuce. Its bitterness is strongest in hot, dry weather and is easily softened by blanching.
When to plant
Look up your frost dates with the zone and frost date lookup.
- Fall (the easier season): sow in midsummer, about three months before your first fall frost, so heads mature in cool weather. Mature plants handle light frosts, and the cold improves the flavor. In mild-winter areas, endive grows through fall and winter.
- Spring: start seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before transplanting and set plants out after the hard frosts have passed, around your last frost date. Young plants exposed to a long spell of cold may bolt later, and spring crops need to be harvested before summer heat makes them bitter and pushes them to flower.
Planting
Endive grows best in full sun; in warm weather, light afternoon shade keeps it from turning too bitter. It likes fertile, well-drained soil with compost worked in and a pH of 6.0 to 7.0. Sow seeds about ¼ inch deep. Thin or transplant curly endive to 8 to 10 inches apart and escarole to about 12 inches, in rows 18 to 24 inches apart. Use the thinnings in salads.
Care
Keep the soil evenly moist. Water stress makes the leaves tough and much more bitter and encourages bolting. A deep watering once or twice a week, adjusted for rain, plus a layer of mulch usually does it. Endive is a moderate feeder: compost at planting and one side-dressing of compost or a balanced fertilizer about a month later is plenty.
Blanching
Blanching means shading the center of the plant so the inner leaves stay pale, tender and mild. When plants are nearly full-sized, pick a dry day and do one of the following:
- gather the outer leaves up over the heart and tie them loosely with twine or a rubber band, or
- set an upside-down plate, pot or board over the center of the plant.
Harvest after about one to three weeks, when the center is creamy white to pale yellow; it happens faster in warm weather. Blanch only as many heads as you can use, because blanched plants rot quickly, especially in wet weather. Some varieties form dense hearts that partly blanch themselves.
Harvesting
Most varieties need about three months from seed to a full head; small frisée types are quicker. Cut the whole head at the base, or pick outer leaves as needed from unblanched plants. Endive keeps a week or more in a bag in the refrigerator.
Pests and problems
Endive is less troubled by pests than most greens. Watch for aphids in the hearts, slugs and snails in damp weather, and cutworms on young transplants. Rot in the center usually follows tying wet plants or blanching too long. Avoid overhead watering late in the day, and give plants enough space for air to move between them. Rotate endive with lettuce and other members of the lettuce family.