the piece of chicory Hello country salad it is a salad to be sown at the end of summer (July to September) which is generally ready after winter. As a vegetable for the family garden it is very interesting, in fact it can be found in the garden during the winter, when the beds are not really full, it is also very easy to grow and requires little work.
It is a plant of the Compositae family, a close relative of chicory and Belgian lettuce, with which it shares a characteristic bitter taste.
curly chicory It belongs to two families: red tuft and the green tuft salad, also called paesana, because without too much care it was cultivated directly in the meadows, by sowing it by multiplication.
Contents [Ocultar]
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Land adapted to the village
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How to sow a piece of chicory
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The simple cultivation of chicory
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lettuce irrigation
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Adversity: insects and diseases
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Pick up loose salads
Contents
Train adapted to the city
Stage . Chicory is not demanding in terms of soil and fertilization, as long as there is no stagnation of water. So to grow it, all you have to do is stir up the garden soil with a good shovel, prepare a well-melted seedbed and plant it. As a fertilizer you can also just use the residual fertility of a previous crop. The fact that this salad was grown even on uncultivated meadows is indicative of its ease of adaptation.
climate and temperature . Chicory chunks are plants that are very resistant to all temperatures, the seeds germinate even at 30 degrees, so there are no problems with seedlings starting in mid-summer, then they are even resistant to frost and are the protagonist of the winter garden. What spoils the chicory can be the action of repeated freezing and thawing: in this case the kernel then freezes but remains frozen in the root ball.
How to sow chicory in pieces
Sow through straw. Chicory can be sown in the garden, if it is cut in September and then in November there is no problem, because it grows quickly. This saves a lot of weeding work. As already mentioned, in ancient times this salad was sown in the meadows, it has no problem competing with weeds, which can then be left completely free.
Sow with lime . When sowing field lettuce in rows, a cut can be made at the base in September, waiting until winter is over to form the bundle or rosette. As the sixth planting in this case, keep 25 cm between rows and at least 30 cm along the row, thinning the seedlings if necessary.
seedling graft
It can also be sown in nurseries and then transplanted seedlings, or buy seedlings already formed at the nursery, which is recommended for those with less time or less experience in the garden. Transplanting can be useful to have more homogeneous rows, avoiding holes due to unborn seeds, even if the chicory germinates well in the ground.
The simple cultivation of chicory
cultivation operations . Chicory only needs to be weeded and cut before winter to form the characteristic clod of field lettuce.
Subsidiary company . Lump radicchio is naturally associated with broad beans and peas, which are the plants that occupy the garden in winter, as well as nearby cucurbits, other legumes and tomatoes, but due to the season they are not generally not feasible.
lettuce irrigation
During warm periods, it is necessary to wet the seedlings, usually the problem does not occur in winter, but during the germination of seeds or after transplanting, which is done for this salad head in the warm months. With the onset of autumn, the rains are generally more frequent and the salad in the village no longer requires irrigation.
Adversity: insects and diseases
Rootballed chicory fears water stagnation, which can carry troublesome cryptogamic diseases (such as mildew, pythium or root rot, rust, powdery mildew). To avoid these rots, it is better to work the soil well where the lettuce is planted and to ensure that there is no stagnation.
Beetle, aphids and cricket are as annoying as insects. Slugs can undermine the leaves and should be avoided with beer traps, while moles eat the roots and in the cold months can be a real pest in the garden.
Collect the salads from the clods
Field lettuce or radicchio head is usually picked in the spring, although the leaves are still edible and can therefore be picked at any time. Waiting for the sheaf to be well formed with a beautiful rose improves the aesthetic quality of the harvest and obviously the quantity.
Depending on the variety, endive bunches can be more or less early. Chicory and field chicory are usually also harvested by pulling out the root. The roots keep fairly well, while the head is perishable as in all salads and should be eaten a few days after harvest.