How to Grow Chicory: Greens, Roots, Forcing & Harvest

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is one of the most versatile and rewarding plants a gardener can grow, and one of the most misunderstood. The same species gives you tender salad greens, the chicons of forced Belgian endive (witloof), and the thick taproots roasted and ground into a caffeine-free coffee substitute. You have almost certainly seen its wild form: the rangy roadside weed topped with sky-blue flowers that open each morning. Domesticated chicory channels that toughness into a productive, cold-hardy crop with a signature bitterness that mellows with cool weather, blanching, and cooking. Whether you want a cut-and-come-again green, a winter forcing project, or homegrown root “coffee,” chicory delivers. Below is everything you need to grow it for leaves, roots, and forced chicons.

Types of Chicory and What They’re For

Chicory splits into a few groups based on how you use it. Leaf chicories include radicchio and the upright sugarloaf types, grown for their heads and leaves. Forcing chicory (witloof), such as ‘Witloof’ or ‘Zoom’, is grown specifically for its roots, which are dug in fall and forced in darkness to produce the pale, torpedo-shaped chicons sold as Belgian endive. Root chicory, like ‘Magdeburg’, is grown for fat taproots that are roasted, ground, and brewed as a coffee additive or substitute. Wild and cutting chicories, including the Italian Catalogna or dandelion chicory, are grown for abundant bitter leaves eaten cooked or raw.

Decide your goal before you sow, because it changes the variety, the sowing date, and the spacing. The good news is that the basic growing conditions are nearly identical across all of them; chicory is fundamentally an easygoing, cold-tough plant.

Choosing a Site and Soil

Chicory wants full sun, though it tolerates a little shade, and like most leafy and root crops it does best in deep, loose, fertile soil. For the root and forcing types especially, a deeply dug, stone-free bed is important so the taproots grow long, straight, and unforked, much as you’d prepare a bed for carrots or parsnips. Aim for a near-neutral pH of 6.0 to 6.8 and work in moderate compost; overly rich, fresh-manured soil encourages forked roots and lush, over-bitter leaves.

Because chicory is so cold-hardy, it is an excellent crop for extending the season into late fall and winter. It shrugs off frosts that would flatten lettuce and actually tastes better for the cold. Even, steady moisture in the soil keeps the leaves more tender and less aggressively bitter.

How to Plant Chicory

For Salad Greens

Direct-sow leaf chicory in early spring as soon as the soil can be worked, or again in late summer for a fall crop. The seeds are small, so sow them just 1/4 inch deep and keep the bed moist; expect germination in 5 to 14 days. Thin cutting types to about 6 to 8 inches apart for loose leaves, or follow heading-variety spacing of 8 to 12 inches. Spring sowings risk bolting if hot weather arrives early, so for the mildest leaves, fall is often the better season.

For Roots and Forcing

Root chicory and witloof types need a long season to build a substantial taproot, so sow them in late spring to early summer, roughly May to June in most climates, giving them the rest of the season to size up. Sow 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep in deeply worked soil and thin plants to about 6 to 8 inches apart, which leaves room for a good root without making it so fat it splits. Resist the urge to harvest the leaves heavily during the season if your goal is roots or chicons, since the plant needs its foliage to store energy in the root.

Watering, Feeding, and Care

Keep the soil consistently moist, supplying about an inch of water a week, more in heat. Drought stress is a chief cause of harsh, overpowering bitterness and of bolting, so even watering pays off in flavor as much as in growth. Mulch to conserve moisture and keep down weeds, which compete strongly with young chicory. The even-moisture rule that prevents brown edges on lettuce leaves applies to chicory greens too.

Feed lightly. Chicory is not a heavy feeder, and too much nitrogen produces floppy, watery, extra-bitter leaves and forked roots. A bed enriched with compost at planting usually needs nothing more. Watch for slugs, snails, and the occasional aphid colony, and keep the patch weeded so airflow stays good and rot stays away.

Blanching and Taming Bitterness

Chicory’s bitterness is part of its appeal, but it is easy to moderate. The simplest method is to let plants grow into cool fall weather, since cold naturally raises the sugar content and softens the bite. For an even milder result, blanch the plants by excluding light for a week or two before harvest. You can do this by loosely tying the outer leaves up over the heart, covering individual plants with an upturned pot (with the drainage hole blocked), or mounding loose soil or straw around the base. Deprived of light, the inner leaves grow pale, crisp, and far sweeter.

In the kitchen you have more options: soaking cut leaves in cold water draws out some bitterness, and cooking methods such as sautéing, braising, or grilling caramelize the leaves and turn the bitterness into a pleasant, mellow depth. A little acid or fat in the dish balances chicory beautifully.

Forcing Chicory into Witloof Chicons

Forcing is the showpiece of chicory growing and it is genuinely satisfying. In mid- to late fall, after the roots have grown all season, dig up the witloof-type roots. Cut the leaves back to about an inch above the crown and trim each root to a uniform length of around 8 inches, discarding thin or forked ones. Let the roots rest for a week or two in a cool place, then pack them upright and close together in a deep box or bucket of moist sand or potting mix, with the crowns just at the surface.

Move the container to a completely dark spot held around 50 to 60°F: a cellar, cupboard, or covered corner of a heated shed works. Total darkness is essential, because any light turns the chicons green and bitter. Keep the sand barely moist. Over the next three to five weeks the roots push up tight, pale-yellow, mild chicons. Harvest each by snapping it off at the crown when it reaches three to six inches; many roots will produce a smaller second flush afterward. The result is the crisp, faintly bitter Belgian endive that costs a fortune at the store and that you’ve grown from a humble root.

Harvesting Greens and Roasting Roots

For leaf chicory, harvest outer leaves as a cut-and-come-again crop, or cut whole heads at the base; cutting types often resprout for a second picking. For root chicory grown as a coffee substitute, dig the taproots in fall after a few frosts have sweetened them. Scrub the roots, slice or chop them, and roast in a low oven (around 250–300°F) until dark brown, dry, and brittle, which can take an hour or two. Grind the roasted root and brew it like coffee, alone or blended with ground coffee for a richer, caffeine-free cup with a deep, slightly nutty flavor.

However you grow it, chicory rewards a gardener willing to work with the seasons and embrace a little bitterness. Pair it with the other cool-weather crops in our vegetable growing guides for a productive fall and winter garden. And once you’ve mastered plain chicory, growing its colorful cousin radicchio uses nearly all the same skills.