Peak summer is just around the corner, but now is the time to think about autumn.Lettuces get mouldy in autumn, but other salads – chicories including radicchio, endives and Florence fennel – are at their best.
A transplant takes four to six weeks until big enough to plant out, then three months to grow until harvest. October crops need to be sown by later June to transplant in late July, to crop in October. A square metre or two of these crops is enough for most households.
Although these plants can be raised in cell trays, it is easier to sow the endives and chicories in a spare bit of ground and transplant them as bare root plants into ground after potatoes, peas and broad beans are cleared. Florence fennel is better sown where it is to grow. If seedlings get ahead and the preceding crop is not yet clear, slow the young plants down by clipping the leaves by half and withholding water.
Shorts
The same goes for Asian vegetables such as pak choi and Chinese flowering kale (kailan). Sow where they are to grow and cover with insect-proof mesh or with fleece to exclude the flea beetles, root flies and caterpillars that can be destructive. Thin once when big enough to desired spacings.
