# Green Leaf Chicory Seeds
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Appearance
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Green leaf chicory looks like its name with slender, richly colored green leaves the same texture as spinach. It may grow 1 to 1 1/2 feet tall and up to 1 foot wide. Chicory has a wide midrib and a smooth leaf margin. Some forms have a red mid rib or slightly rippled edges. The plant is a biennial but is mostly grown as an annual, as it is frost tender, but you can get several harvests each season. In very mild climates the plant may reseed itself.
Seeds
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Chicory will bolt when temperatures soar, just as spinach and other more common greens will do. The plant produces a stalk with a series of starry blue flowers that are very attractive. Surrounding the flowers, the leaves are smaller and more coarse, slightly hairy and silver tinged. When the flowers are spent, they produce small brown seeds with some mottling. Each seed is tiny and only about .08 to .11 inches in diameter. The seed is slightly oval and grainy in texture.
Sowing
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The tiny seeds can be mixed with sand or other particulate material to sow. Sow the seeds in early spring as soon as the soil is workable. The optimum germination temperatures for chicory are between 45 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Chicory needs well tilled soil with good drainage in a sunny location. Sow the seed in blocks 4 to 6 inches apart for leafy green harvest. Emergence can be expected in seven days on average. Chicory is fast growing and can be harvested in three to five weeks.
Harvest and Use
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Green leaf chicory leaves are used in salads. You can harvest the leaves as you need them from the outside first. The plant will continue to produce new leaves until temperatures become too hot or too cold. The slightly bitter flavor also makes an interesting pesto when ground with garlic, citrus and olive oil. Many of the varieties of chicory that are available are grown to produce the white endive vegetable or for their roots. The roots are used as a vegetable or roasted and added to coffee. Most chicory seed is grown and harvested in Europe.
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