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(Best months for planting Endive in New Zealand - cool/mountain regions)

• Easy to grow.
• Harvest in 70 days
• Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed.
• Best planted at soil temperatures between 15°C and 25°C.
• Space plants: 20-30cm

This is a green leafy plant which looks a bit like a crinkly lettuce. Slightly bitter taste which can enhance a salad bowl but if this is not wanted the bitterness can be removed by blanching. Blanch by tying the leaves together when a rosette begins to form or cover with a large pot for about 3 weeks. Relative of chicory

Best grown in cooler months as hot weather might make it bolt to flower. Keep well watered to reduce bitterness. Water at base as water trapped inside leaves will cause rot.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Endive

Use in salads additional to lettuce

Your comments and tips

13 Apr 11 C.C. (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)

Does anyone have any practical experience of blanching the Ruffec variety? Mine are beginning to form rosettes, but are only a month into their growth. Various sources repeat the claim the leaves should be tied 2-3 weeks before harvest. Any suggestions?

25 Aug 11 Andrew Clark (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)

Contact Richard Collins from California vegetable specialties. He is the only commercial producer in USA and has 250acres of it. Try and find them in internet. It took him 10years to get growing right.