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Chicory's bitterness climbs when the plant is stressed, and drought is the commonest stress in a home garden. A plant that wilts hard in midsummer heat and is then soaked builds up bitter compounds in the leaves and often splits its heart when growth restarts. The aim is not heavy watering but unbroken moisture.
Through the bulking weeks give the bed the equivalent of about an inch (25 mm) a week, delivered in one or two long soaks rather than a daily sprinkle. Push a finger two inches (5 cm) into the soil: if it comes out dry, water. Mulch the rows with two inches (5 cm) of straw or leaf mold once the plants have six or seven leaves, which halves how often you need to think about it.
As the nights cool and the heads start to firm, ease off. Wet soil around a filling heart in cool damp weather is what turns the outer leaves slimy and lets rot get into the heart. Water in the morning so the leaves dry by evening, and water the soil, not the plant.
| Stage | Water | Feed | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seedling to six leaves | Little and often, keep surface damp | None beyond the base dressing | Drying out between waterings |
| Bulking, warm weather | One inch (25 mm) a week in long soaks | One light nitrogen feed if leaves pale | Drought then flood, which triggers bolting |
| Heart filling, cool nights | Only when the top two inches dry | Stop nitrogen entirely | Rot in the heart from wet foliage |
| Roots for forcing, last month | Reduce noticeably | Nothing | Soft, watery roots that force poorly |
Feed less than you think
Chicory is not a hungry crop and overfeeding it is the classic mistake. Too much nitrogen gives you big soft outer leaves, a loose heart that never firms, and, in forcing types, a fat leafy top over a thin root. Soft growth is also the growth that aphids and slugs go for first.
One light feed part way through the growing period is enough, and only if the leaves are visibly pale and growth has stalled. Once the nights start dropping and the heart begins to close, stop feeding altogether. From that point the plant should be moving sugars into the heart and, in forcing types, into the root, and extra nitrogen simply keeps it making leaves instead.
Potassium matters more than nitrogen late in the season, because it is tied to how much sugar the root stores. A tomato-type feed at half strength once in early autumn suits a root crop far better than a general-purpose feed.
Cold weather is what makes it sweet
Chicory's bitterness is not a fault to be eliminated, it is the point of the crop, and it is at its best when balanced by sweetness. That balance is created by cold. When night temperatures drop below about 45F (7C) the plant converts stored starch into sugars, and the flavor shifts from harsh to a clean bitterness with a sweet edge behind it. Red heading types also color up in response to cold, going from muddy green-red to a deep, clear red.
This is why a chicory harvested in mild weather tastes so much rougher than the same plant three weeks later after a run of frosty nights. Do not rush to cut. A light frost improves heading chicory; it will take temperatures down to about 25F (minus 4C) with the outer leaves taking the damage and the heart staying sound.
There is a limit. A hard freeze below about 20F (minus 7C) turns the heart to mush once it thaws. Row cover over the row on the coldest nights buys you several weeks at the end of the season, and the flavor of those late heads is the best you will get.
Tidying and spacing as the heads close
As autumn goes on the lower leaves yellow and lie on the soil. Pull them off. They hold moisture against the base of the plant, hide slugs, and are where gray mold starts. Removing them opens up airflow between plants and is probably the single most useful hour of work in the whole season.
Resist the urge to tie heading chicory shut the way you might tie a lettuce. The heart closes on its own if the spacing and the weather are right, and a tied plant with damp leaves inside it rots. The exception is deliberate blanching, which is a separate operation done knowingly and for a short time.
- Strip yellowing outer leaves Snap them off cleanly at the base every couple of weeks from early autumn. Leave the stubs and they rot in place; take them right off.
- Clear the mulch back from the crown Pull straw an inch or two away from the base of each plant. Mulch touching the crown in cool wet weather is an invitation to rot.
- Check for a soft heart Squeeze each head gently. A head that gives unevenly has rot starting inside and should come out now rather than later.
What to write down this season
Chicory rewards records more than most crops because the useful decisions are all about timing, and timing is invisible unless you wrote it down. Note the sowing date, the date each row was thinned to final spacing, and the date the first heart felt firm. Next year the gap between those tells you whether to sow a fortnight earlier or later.
Also record the date of the first real cold night, below 45F (7C), and how the flavor compared before and after it. And for forcing types, note where in the row each plant sat and how thick the root was at lifting, because thin roots almost always trace back to a patch of the bed that was too rich, too shallow or too dry.