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I have fond memories of chicory/witloof (we just called it witloof, which is a Dutch name that translates as white leaf). Our Dutch heritage meant we grew up watching Dad grow witloof and enjoying the bitter leaves in salads and Mum’s cooked chicons with white sauce. But I realise, a lot of people don’t know much about this seemingly complicated plant so this month I thought I’d show you the simple side of chicory. 

Order your chicory witloof seedlings from our online shop. Each regular-sized bundle comes with nine seedlings which is a great number to start with.

There are two stages to growing chicory. The first stage produces a bunch of leaves in a shape like a rose and a root. In the second stage you bury the harvested root until it produces a new sprout or narrow head of bright white coloured leaves, with creamy yellow edges, which is known as Belgian endive or chicon.

Stage one of planting chicory is simple, just plant them as you would most other plants and space them around 25cm apart.

Good companion plants to grow next to chicory are carrots, onions, fennel and tomatoes – they all like the same conditions. 

Then sit back and allow the plants to grow throughout the summer. You can harvest some of the leaves as bitter greens for salads but don’t take too many as you want the leaves to put as much energy into growing the root as possible. At this stage your chicory will also produce a very pretty blue flower, which will brighten up your garden beds!  

In autumn, the plants will have matured and it’s time to harvest the roots and start the second stage. At this point some people like to grind up the root of the chicory and use it as a substitute for coffee.

But I like to ‘force’ the roots into the second stage of growth to produce Belgian endive or chicons. This will take around 4 to 5 weeks depending on temp. 

To force your chicory, start by lifting the plants out of the ground. Then cut off the leaves about 2cm above the roots. 

There are a number of ways to do the next step. But the main idea is to replant the roots in complete darkness so that no light gets to the leaves. This forces it to grow a new set of pale leaves called a chicon or Belgian endive.

I recommend finding some sort of container like an old drum. Pour in some loose soil or potting mix to the bottom of the drum. Next plant the chicory in the soil with the root pointing downwards and the cut-off leaves just above the soil. Plant each one about 3-5cm apart so they are close to each other. 

Then cover them with sawdust – around 30cm high. The point of the sawdust is to completely block the light from getting to the chicory which will prevent the leaves turning green, which would also release its bitter compounds. In the darkness the white chicon starts "forcing" itself out of the head the plant. 

Keep the sawdust (and the chicory) damp but not soggy. If you live somewhere where it gets pretty cold in winter, I recommend putting the drum (or container you’ve planted in) in somewhere like a garage so that the chicory doesn’t get too cold. It doesn’t like being colder than 10 degrees Celsius. 

From time to time have a look under the sawdust and see how they’re looking and then ensure they’ve got lots of sawdust back over top.

My Dad used to cheat a bit when he was forcing the chicons. Because we lived at the nursery we had mountains of sawdust for covering our germinating seedlings. Dad would just poke the chicory into all the sawdust outside and then ‘voila’ we’d have witloof!

As I mentioned above, around 4 to 5 weeks depending on temp after you re-plant your chicory you can expect to see some tightly packed, teardrop-shaped chicon heads. Gently remove the chicons from the roots, grill and enjoy with white sauce like we did. Or stuff, use in a salad or more.