Endive Encornet de Bordeaux Seeds

Info: Endives are like Chicory and Radicchio a lettuce variety with a slightly bitter flavour. The natural bitter flavour of the leaf can be reduced significantly by simply covering the plant with a pot for several weeks before harvesting. This technique is called blanching.
The Endive `Encornet de Bordeaux is a hardy variety with dark green serrated leaves. It produces a good amount of small juicy leaves in winter, especially if the plants are kept to a small size over the cold winter months. If used as a cut and come again this variety will produce good quality leaves over a long season. Ideal for containers. Ideal for Salad leaf mixture.

Sowing & cultivation: Endives like a nutrient-rich, constantly moist soil in a sunny to half-shady poisiton. You can sow endives in the spring (April-June) for a summer harvest (June-October) or in September for an autumn / winter harvest November - April). Sow 1 seed every 2 cm at the depth and row distance of 25 cm. Cover the seeds with soil and water well. When the seedlings are big enough to handle start to thin out the seedlings. Thin out in stages until the plants are 25 cm apart. Endives which has formed a heart should be harvested before any severe frosts arrive, ideally by late November. If the leaves are too bitter, then use the blanching technique 3-5 weeks before harvesting.