Endive Seeds - Green Curled Ruffec

Minimum Seeds per Packet: 220

Packet Weight: 0.5g

Planting Season: Spring or Fall

Sowing Method: Direct Seed or Transplant

Seed Depth: 1/4"

Direct Seed Spacing: 1"

Soil Temperature: 45-68 ℉

Days to Sprout: 4-15

Mature Spacing: 8-10"

Sun Requirement: Full Sun or Partial Shade

Frost Tolerance: Moderately Tolerant

Days to Harvest: 87

When to Seed Endive

Endive is a cold-hardy green that can be grown easily from seed with the right conditions. Sow seeds directly into the garden in late summer for a fall crop. Northern growers will be able to produce a spring crop easily, but in the South, it tends to get too hot too quickly. Endive will germinate best when the daily temperatures are about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. They can also be started indoors and transplanted out. 

Where to Plant Endive

Choose a spot with well-draining soil, where you can provide plenty of moisture. It needs at least four hours of sun per day - quite a bit less than other crops. Endives love full sun, but they’ll do great in partial shade too, especially in warmer climates. 

Growing Endive 

Sow seeds no more than ¼ inch deep. If direct seeding, plant them 1 inch apart and thin them (or transplant) to their mature eight to ten inches. Watering regularly and heavily is going to be the key to good germination rates as well as producing a health crop. Mulch around the plants to hold in moisture and try to water from the base rather than soaking the leaves. When your plants reach about three inches tall, fertilizer with a nitrogen-heavy fertilizer like blood meal. 

Harvesting Endive

You can start harvesting in a cut and come again fashion early on, or you can grow your crop to maturity. If producing mature heads, you may take the optional step of blanching. This will make harvests less bitter and produce a lighter color. In order to do this, about two to three weeks before your crop is reaching the expected days to harvest date, ensure that the leaves are mostly dry. Blanching with moisture in the leaves can cause rot. Pull the outer leaves over the center of the plant and secure them with some twine. You want to ensure no sunlight is reaching the crown of the plant. Alternatively, you can use a bowl, pot, or cardboard box placed over your plants, but be sure to cover any holes. You are welcome to check on the blanching process as it goes. The heads should be a creamy white color when they’re ready to harvest. Once ready, cut entire heads with a sharp knife at the base of the plant.

Endive and escarole (Cicorium endivia) are self-pollinating biennials. They must be vernalized (exposed to a period of cold weather) in order to trigger flowering. Often, being planted in late winter or very early spring will give the plants enough cold exposure that they will flower that same year. Because it is self-pollinating, Cicorium endivia only requires an isolation distance of 20 feet between different varieties of endive and escarole to prevent cross-pollination. Interestingly, endive and escarole (Cicorium endivia) cannot be pollinated by Belgian endive, radicchio, and wild chicory (Cicorium intybus), but endive and escarole will pollinate Belgian endive, radicchio, and wild chicory - beware if you are saving seed from both species! Endive or escarole flowers will open and mature gradually over time from the bottom of the stalk to the top, and the earliest maturing flowers may drop their seeds by the time the last ones open, so it’s best to harvest seeds when about two-thirds of the flower heads have turned brown. Cut the seed stalks, and bring them indoors to finish drying. Then thresh the seeds out by crushing the stalks, and winnow away the chaff using a box fan set on low. Store your seeds in an airtight container in a cool, dark, and dry location.