Endive
Cichorium endivia
A bitter salad leaf that carries on well after lettuce has given up, and one of the few worth blanching at home: covering the heart for ten days before cutting turns it from harsh to pleasantly sharp. Best as an autumn crop.
- Position
- Full sun or Partial shade
- Water
- moderate demand
- Drainage
- Moisture-retentive
- Grows to
- 20–30 cm × 30 cm
- Hardiness
- H4
- Harvest
- September to November
- Difficulty
- Some care needed
August
Sow outdoors
Coming next month: harvest.
Endive’s year
Resolved for United Kingdom (general). Every window is stored against a climate event rather than a date, so a late frost pocket runs later than the band shows. What else August calls for.
| Activity | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sow outdoors | June. | July. | August. | |||||||||
| Harvest | September. | October. | November. |
Timing that travels
The band above resolves this plant's windows into months for one region. These are the windows themselves, stored against a climate event rather than a date — which is the form that survives being carried to a colder garden, a frost pocket, or next year.
Conditions it needs
- Light
- Full sun, Partial shade
- Frost
- Hardy
- Hardiness rating
- H4 (RHS)
- Grows best at
- 10–20 °C
- Germinates at
- 10–25 °C
- Soil
- Loam
- Soil pH
- 6–7
- Drainage
- Moisture-retentive
- Water needs
- moderate
- Drought
- poor tolerance
- Waterlogging
- poor tolerance
- Heat
- moderate tolerance
- Wind and exposure
- moderate tolerance
Where these figures come from
- LightSourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — position
Checked 2026-08-13
- FrostSourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — hardiness
Checked 2026-08-13
- Hardiness ratingSourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: RHS hardiness ratings
Checked 2026-08-13
- Grows best atSourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — temperature
Checked 2026-08-13
- Germinates atSourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Seed germination temperatures
Checked 2026-08-13
- SoilSourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — soil
Checked 2026-08-13
- Soil pHSourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Plant Finder — Missouri Botanical Garden: Cichorium endivia — culture
Checked 2026-08-13
- DrainageSourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — soil
Checked 2026-08-13
- Water needsHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- DroughtHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- WaterloggingHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- HeatHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- Wind and exposureHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
On your soil
Computed by comparing this plant's recorded requirements against each soil's recorded characteristics. A recorded horticultural fact overrides the comparison where GrowingHQ holds one.
| Soil | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy clay | Works, with one condition | Endive will crop on heavy clay, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. For a crop lifted before winter the risk is not rot but the season: waterlogged ground is cold and unworkable in spring, so sowing is late and germination patchy.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse. |
| Sandy | Works, with one condition | Endive will crop on sandy, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It has little drought tolerance and this soil dries out fast — it will check and bolt in the first dry spell without watering.Water and mulch will carry it through. On this soil the watering is not optional in a dry spell, which is the difference between a crop and a failure. |
| Chalky and alkaline | Struggles here | Endive struggles on chalky and alkaline: The soil is substantially too alkaline for it: it wants pH 6 to 7, and this soil sits around 7.8 to 8.5. It has little drought tolerance and this soil dries out fast — it will check and bolt in the first dry spell without watering. A container or a raised bed of imported soil sidesteps the problem entirely. |
| Loam | Prefers this soil | Loam suits Endive as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 6 to 7, and this soil is in that range. Loam is among the soils it is recorded as suiting. The soil holds moisture, which saves a great deal of watering. |
| Silty | Grows well here | Endive grows perfectly well on silty without special measures, though it is not the soil it would choose. |
| Peaty and acid | Works, with one condition | Endive will crop on peaty and acid, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. For a crop lifted before winter the risk is not rot but the season: waterlogged ground is cold and unworkable in spring, so sowing is late and germination patchy.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse. |
| Shallow over rock | Works, with one condition | Endive will crop on shallow over rock, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It has little drought tolerance and this soil dries out fast — it will check and bolt in the first dry spell without watering.Water and mulch will carry it through. On this soil the watering is not optional in a dry spell, which is the difference between a crop and a failure. |
| Made ground and urban soil | Works, with one condition | Endive will crop on made ground and urban soil, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. For a crop lifted before winter the risk is not rot but the season: waterlogged ground is cold and unworkable in spring, so sowing is late and germination patchy.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse. |
Not sure which you have? Four hand tests will settle it.
Space and spacing
- Mature height
- 20–30 cm
- Mature spread
- 30 cm
- Rooting depth
- 25 cm
- Spacing
- 25–30 cm apart
Where these figures come from
- Mature heightHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- Mature spreadHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- Rooting depthHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- SpacingSourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — spacing
Checked 2026-08-13
In a container
- Minimum volume
- 8 litres or more
- Minimum depth
- 20 cm
Where the container figures come from
- Minimum volumeHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- Minimum depthHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Where and how you can grow it
Each way of growing is assessed separately, and “not assessed” is a real answer rather than a gap we have filled in with a guess.
| Method | Suitability | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse | Well suitedsourceSourced guidancemoderate confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | |
| Polytunnel | Well suitedsourceSourced guidancemoderate confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | |
| Cold frame | Well suitedsourceSourced guidancemoderate confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | |
| Hydroponics | Well suitedsourceSourced guidancemoderate confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | |
| Open ground | WorkablesourceSourced guidancemoderate confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | |
| Traditional dug bed | WorkablesourceSourced guidancemoderate confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | |
| Raised bed | WorkablesourceSourced guidancemoderate confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | |
| Container | WorkablesourceSourced guidancemoderate confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 |
Growing it
- ProtectionCover the heart with a plate or an upturned pot for ten to fourteen days before cutting, keeping the leaves dry. Blanching removes most of the bitterness and is the difference between a crop worth growing and one that gets composted.
- WateringWater steadily. Endive that dries out becomes intensely bitter, and blanching will not rescue it.
- ThinningThin to 25–30 cm. Crowded plants do not form the dense heart that blanching depends on.
Where this guidance comes from
- ProtectionSourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — blanching
Checked 2026-08-13
- WateringSourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — care
Checked 2026-08-13
- ThinningSourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — care
Checked 2026-08-13
Is it worth putting under cover?
Whether it will grow there is on the methods table above. This is whether the space is well spent, which is a different question and usually the one being asked.
| Structure | What protection is worth | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse | Extends the seasonsourceGrowingHQ editorial positionmoderate confidence What protection is worth for this crop, judged against the same standard as every other record in this file.
Checked 2026-08-13 | Winter light, and blanching. Endive is hardy, and cover keeps the heart clean and dry enough to be worth blanching. |
| Polytunnel | Extends the seasonsourceGrowingHQ editorial positionmoderate confidence What protection is worth for this crop, judged against the same standard as every other record in this file.
Checked 2026-08-13 | Winter light, and blanching. |
Growing it without soil
Nearly anything can be grown in a soilless system by somebody with enough equipment. The useful question is whether it is worth it, in which technique, and what goes wrong.
An established soilless crop. Grown this way commercially or routinely by home growers, with predictable results.
source
Sourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Purdue Extension — Purdue University: Hydroponic leafy greens
Checked 2026-08-13
Blanching the heart, which is what makes endive worth eating, is done by excluding light rather than by anything the system does.
Techniques that suit it
- Nutrient film (NFT)A shallow stream of solution runs over bare roots in a sloped channel. Cheap and productive for small fast crops; a pump failure kills a crop within hours because there is no reservoir at the roots.
- Deep water cultureRoots hang in aerated solution. Very productive and very unforgiving of solution temperature — warm solution holds less oxygen and root disease follows.
- Ebb and flowA bed of inert medium floods and drains on a timer. The medium holds moisture between floods, which makes it far more tolerant of interruption than NFT.
source
Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- Root space
- Small, like every leafy crop of its type.
- Lighting
- Needs supplementary light
- pH band
- 5.5–6.5
Where these figures come from
- Root spaceHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- LightingHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
- pH bandSourced guidancehigh confidence
Outside roughly this band, individual nutrients become unavailable even when they are present in the solution — which is why a crop can starve in a full reservoir.
- Purdue Extension — Purdue University: Hydroponic solution management — pH
Checked 2026-08-13
What actually goes wrong
- Warm solution. Above roughly 22 °C the water holds much less dissolved oxygen and root disease follows quickly, which is why summer is harder than winter in an indoor system.
source
Sourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Purdue Extension — Purdue University: Solution temperature and dissolved oxygen
Checked 2026-08-13
- Pump or power failure. In nutrient film and aeroponics there is no reserve at the roots, so a crop can be lost within hours; medium-based systems hold moisture and are far more forgiving.
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
- Purdue Extension — Purdue University: Hydroponic system design — failure modes
Checked 2026-08-13
No nutrient recipes here
GrowingHQ records pH bands, which are measurable properties of nutrient availability, and deliberately records no EC or PPM targets and no mixing instructions. Published targets vary by cultivar, growth stage, water source and technique, and the figures that apply to your system are on the product you bought.
Harvesting
- When it is readyReady from about twelve weeks after sowing, and blanched types should be cut two to three weeks after covering — left longer under the cover they rot rather than sweeten. Cut before hard frost. The point of blanching is bitterness: an unblanched endive is edible but sharp, and the pale heart is what most people are after.
- How to pick itCut the whole head at the base with a knife. Blanch by covering a dry plant with a plate or pot — a damp one under cover rots instead of blanching.
Where the harvest guidance comes from
- When it is readySourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Endive — harvesting
Checked 2026-08-13
- How to pick itHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence
No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
What goes wrong
| Problem | How often | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Slugs and snails | commonsourceHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence No external citation — see the evidence type above. Checked 2026-08-13 |
Sources for this page
GrowingHQ editorial synthesis · Plant Finder · Purdue Extension · Royal Horticultural Society
Each figure on this page carries its own citation, under the “where these figures come from” note in its section. Record last reviewed 2026-08-14.