How to Grow Radicchio



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Days to germination: 6 to 10 days
Days to harvest: 60 to 80 days
Light requirements: Full sun or slight shade
Water requirements: Frequent but light watering
Soil: Fertile and rich soil
Container: Quite suitable

Introduction

Radicchio can be a confusing vegetable for anyone not familiar with it. It’s a leafy salad green, and not related the radish even though the names are similar. Radicchio is also sometimes called Italian chicory to further complicate things, though it is closely related.

The leaves are usually deep red with bright white ribs, and it grows a lot like a head of cabbage. Some varieties produce a tight head, and some are leafier. It has strong tasting leaves that can be noticeably bitter when eaten raw, though that is still the most common way to use radicchio. The flavor is much milder if you cook it.

It’s a perennial, so you once you establish your plants, you can harvest your radicchio for many more years.

The strong taste usually means people eat it sparingly in their salads, but it is a very nutritious plant and probably should be eaten more often. The leaves are high in potassium, folic acid and even vitamin C.

Starting from Seed

Radicchio is a cool-weather plant, so you’ll get the best results with either a spring or fall planting. Since they can handle some light frosts, you can plant your spring seeds up to 4 weeks before your expected last frost date.

For a second fall crop, you can start another batch of seeds about 8 to 10 weeks before you expect to get the first frosts of winter. If your growing season is short, you might find that a fall planting of radicchio won’t thrive because it is still too hot when the seedlings are first growing. If that is the case, stick to the first planting in the spring. You just need to watch your plants so they don’t go to seed in the summer heat.

Work your soil well, and add a very generous helping of compost or aged manure to the soil before any seeds go in. Seeds need to be sown close to the surface, no deeper than 1/4 inch under the soil. Even just a sprinkling of loose soil over the seeds is enough.

Growing Instructions

Keep your plants watered often, but only a light watering is necessary. Don’t flood the plants. During the hotter months, it’s a good idea to lightly water your radicchio every day to keep the soil moist. This can help prevent your plants from bolting too early. Once they go to seed (bolt), the leaves will almost immediately get too bitter to eat.

You can also protect your plants from the heat with some mid-summer shading. They do need full sun when they are first growing, but when the hot weather arrives, they will do better in the shade.

Another thing that can make your plants bolt early is too much nitrogen, so take it easy with commercial fertilizer. Use a low-nitrogen blend if necessary. If your soil is rich to start with, you probably won’t need to add any fertilizer anyway.

Containers

If you are short on garden space, you can grow radicchio in large pots without any problems. Keep it to one plant for every 8 inches of container, and water them frequently. They may even grow better than out in the garden because you can move the pots into shadier surroundings as the season heats up.

Mix your potting soil with compost, and give your radicchio a feeding with low-nitrogen fertilizer after about 4 weeks to keep the nutrient levels up.

Pests and Diseases

Leafy radicchio is vulnerable to some of the same types of pests you will find on many other greens, like various caterpillars and slugs. They chew up the leaves, destroying your harvest if not killing the plants outright. Various methods will work to keep the slugs out of your garden, including commercial pesticides, saucers of beer and liberal dosings of powdered diatomaceous earth. If you check on your radicchio plants regularly, even just picking the caterpillars off will help.

Juice-sucking aphids can also cause problems for your plants, particularly around the large veins or ribs in the leaves. A few aphids won’t do much damage, but large clusters of them will weaken the plant. Frequent sprays with water can help keep them off, and natural pyrethrin-based insect sprays can also be a deterrent.

But overall, there aren’t many insects that like radicchio because of the strong flavor. It’s also very disease-resistant. You can sometimes find powdery white smudges of mildew on the leaves due to high humidity around the plants. Water the soil rather than the leaves, and thin out any extra plants to help with air circulation.

Harvest and Storage

If you are growing a fall crop of radicchio, leave your plants until after the first couple of light frosts if possible. The chill will help take the bitterness out of the leaves, leaving you with much sweeter tasting greens. You can harvest individual leaves, or wait until the plant has matured and take the entire head.

You can tell when it’s ready to harvest by the firmness of the entire head. Once it’s developed into a head, you can cut it off at ground level to harvest. For spring-sown radicchio, you have to also watch that you harvest before the heat causes the plants to go to seed.

Even after you’ve sliced off the entire head, the plant will still come back the next year as long as the roots are not disturbed over the winter.

Like most greens, radicchio doesn’t store very well and is definitely best used fresh. Individual leaves should be stored in the refrigerator, in a plastic bag with damp paper towel to keep it moist. It will stay crisp and fresh for 4 to 5 days this way. If you’ve harvested the entire head, you can keep that in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

14 Responses to “How to Grow Radicchio”

  1. MGOma  Says:

    This was really helpful. Thanks. One question – what hardiness zone will allow for overwintering ?

  2. Thom  Says:

    Planted several from seed in early spring, but none formed a head. Any suggestions?

  3. phil  Says:

    You say it’s perennial but the instructions seem to be like an annual (planting seeds for spring or fall harvest). what are the instructions for established plants: harvest head in june, allow to grow harvest again in fall. what happens if it bolts over the summer? just cut it back?

  4. Heidi  Says:

    I planted seed last Spring … some straight leafed green plant grew so I thought the seed pkt was mislabeled. I was out in my garden today and noticed tight clusters of definitely red/purple radicchio coming up! I was quite shocked, but pleasantly so! Who ever heard of a perennial “lettuce”? :o)

  5. Cheri  Says:

    I live in Utah and have a small veg garden in my backyard. I just brought some Radicchio plants home is it different from seed than plants? It can get pretty hot in summer in my backyard. I noticed it likes some shade,any helpful hints?

  6. Bob L  Says:

    I have 2 plants I let go to seed, they have flowered with purple flowers, when do I harvest the seed

  7. Tina H  Says:

    Advice requested- I am starting radicchio in indoor flats. Can anyone tell me if the seeds require light to germinate similar to lettuce? Had problems with germination in the past when I did followed the “cover with 2-3 times the diameter of seed” rule.
    Thanks in advance.

  8. Tina H  Says:

    Thom- I haven’t tried it but edible landscape suggests if radicchio is not forming heads, to cut the plant back to about and inch, keep even water and light low-nitrogen fertilizer and remaining plants should head-up.

    https://www.garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=201110-edible

  9. Jeanne Hilton  Says:

    Red heads are forming, but I have very large green leaves surrounding. What should I do with those? I have been cutting them off at the base, but find them very bitter when raw. One put up a vertical head, with small leaves on a stock. I cut that one off at the base and pulled off the small leaves for salad. That does not strike me as a ‘bolt’.

  10. Clarice  Says:

    Will the plants continue to grow in the fall if they bolt in the summer? Should the seed stalk be cut off or be left to mature?

  11. Cynthia Coppi  Says:

    I planted Radicchio seeds a couple of months ago that a friend brought back from Italy. The leaves have come up green and there are no red and white leaves. The back of the package says to dig up the plants and put them in water in a dark place. I tried one plant to see what would happen and it just withered away. What do I do now. Do I have a different variety of seeds than the red radicchio?

  12. Ed  Says:

    The lights are on but nobody is home.

  13. pasqua Manzon  Says:

    We plant radicchio annually . The with the August moon we transplanted . I last few or so it grows then it dies ? We try many ways to not avail . Any suggestions . Pasqua from Woodbridge Ontario Canada ?pasq

  14. constance decker  Says:

    Cynthia Coppi,
    How did everything go last year?
    I have my first crop of both round head and tall head radicchio.
    As of now all I see are beautiful green leaves, but no res ones.
    m I premature to worry or am I suppose to cover the plants now so they red up? Its only been a month since I planted them.
    Please Cynthia or anyone… how or when do I make the plant turn into a head and turn red?????
    Connie

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