Endives are sown quite late in the year and can therefore be used as a successor to early vegetables. Find out below what you need to consider when sowing.
How do you sow endives correctly?
To sow endives successfully, prepare the soil with compost and sow the seeds directly outdoors between mid-June and mid-July. Ensure a sowing depth of 1 cm, a planting distance of at least 30 cm and initially keep the soil evenly moist.
Preparing the soil properly
Endive is a fairly frugal salad, but needs sufficient nutrients for he althy, strong growth. Therefore, the soil should be enriched with compost a few months before sowing. To do this, dig up the soil to a depth of about 30 cm and add a good portion of compost or manure to the hole. Mix soil and compost with a hoe or shovel. This can also happen last year in late autumn.
Prefer endives
Endives can be grown in seed trays, but that doesn't really make sense as they are only planted out very late in the year anyway and can therefore be sown directly into the bed without any problems. From June you can grow the endives in seed trays at temperatures around 20 degrees and then plant them outdoors from July.
Sow endives directly outdoors
It makes more sense to sow the endives directly into the bed. Endives prefer a sunny location. The sunnier the location, the less bitter the endives become, because the sun lowers the nitrate content. Here are the most important key data for successful endive sowing:
- Sowing date: between mid-June and mid-July
- Sowing depth: 1cm
- Planting distance: at least 30cm
- Development time: 3 months
- Care: water a lot at first, reduce later
- Fertilization: before sowing, then mulch at most once
- Harvest: August to November
The best plant neighbors
Endives get along very well with most plants. There is no plant that they can't get along with. But perfect plant neighbors are:
- Fennel
- Carrots
- Cabbage family
- Leek
- Leek
- pole beans
Care after sowing
Immediately after sowing, endives should be kept evenly moist and must not dry out under any circumstances! Once the plants have reached a size of 10cm, you can reduce the water supply slightly to avoid rot.
Harvest endive correctly
Endives are often quite bitter. To reduce the bitter content, you can tie the leaves together a few days before harvesting. These then bleach, which reduces the nitrate content, but the vitamin content also decreases. Harvested from August to November.
