Vegetable · Asteraceae
When to plant witloof chicory
Grown outdoors for a root in the first season, then lifted and forced in the dark indoors to produce the pale chicon. Two crops from one sowing, months apart.
Sow direct
2 weeks after
Counted from your last spring frost.
Days to maturity
150-180
From sowing to a first picking.
Frost tolerance
Hardy
How much cold the plant itself will take.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make witloof chicory plantable anywhere.
- Sow direct 2 weeks after the last frost.
- Expect 150–180 days to maturity, counted from sowing.
Getting the timing right
Sow around two weeks after the last frost and leave the plant to build a root all season. Lift after the first frosts, trim the leaves, and force in darkness at about 12C.
Frost tolerance
The root is hardy to about -8C and a frost before lifting is traditionally thought to improve forcing, so there is no rush to get it up.
Classified as hardy, with damage expected below -8°C (17.6°F)17.6°F (-8°C).