Radicchio spacing

[Vicy]

Hi all,

Ive sowed some radicchio in a container and it's beginning to sprout.

Anyone grown this before? Will I need to thin?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

You got better germination than me. I tried it a few years back and got nothing, so I am not experienced, but Google says between eight and twelve inches apart

 

[headfullofbees]

With most crops like this, I recommend eat as you thin, but this does not work for radicchio as you have to use the outer leaves to blanch the inner ones.
So thin to twelve inches (30cm) apart either way.
You can still start to take them a little early, but this really is a crop for successional sowing.

 

[Vicy]

Can you eat the leaves at any point?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I recommend eat as you thin,

On word of warning, not literally. Back in the 70's my hippie friends would go on about how wonderful it was to be natural and eat beans and carrots as they picked or pulled them, they all got worms.

 

[headfullofbees]

Sorry, I didn't mean right there & then in the garden, but using thinnings like onions cabbage etc. which you pull out when thinning, in the kitchen.

 

[headfullofbees]

Can you eat the leaves at any point?

You can, but if they have green on them, they're very bitter.
It's better to let them get a decent size head & use the outer leaves to blanch the inner, throwing the very bitter outer leaves away.

 

[Vicy]

I've thinned out and kept the young leaves. If I wash them maybe they will taste OK!