Escarole in SFG

Anybody plant escarole in their SFGs ? I'm thinking about trying it since I love eating it.

Anybody?

I bought some starts today at the big orange box store

camprn wrote:I bought some starts today at the big orange box store

What's the spacing for those? I'd like to add those to my list of things to grow this year. I love escarole.

Give me a plate of escarole and italian sausage or give me death!

Sorry for my Patrick Henry moment.

I lied, I bought radicchio. Here is a link for escarole. Probably 2 per square, in the corners.

camprn wrote:I lied, I bought radicchio. Here is a link for escarole. Probably 2 per square, in the corners.

Thanks for the link camprn

I grew escarole in the spring of 2016. I don't know if you're still lurking, Too Tall Tomatoes, but I did have one of my escarole heads with Italian sausage! According to the link camprn provided, I lucked out, it didn't bolt before it reached full size even though I grew it in spring. My spring endive (which, fascinatingly, is same species as escarole, but a different subtype) didn't bolt either, but rotted in the centers, probably because I didn't harvest it on time.



Somehow I assumed I could/should grow escarole and endive the same as lettuce (4/sq). It worked out pretty well, but it crowded out the other lettuces by the time it was ready. 2/sq is probably more accurate. Or maybe one could plant more towards the corner of a corner square and let the leaves stick out over the edge, and plant the other 3 quarters of the square with leaf lettuce.

I think due to fungus gnat maggots in my indoor seed starting area, my fall planting of escarole and endive failed at the seedling stage --same with my fall radicchio.

For my successful spring radicchio I think I did an awkward 3/2sq because it was in the non-ANSFG portion of my garden. It was tight, 1/sq is probably more reasonable, especially if adjacent squares are lush. But I grew Palla Rossa Mavrik, which is a round variety. An oval variety ?"Rossa di Treviso" might work perfectly well with 2/sq. Or maybe there are other round varieties that are smaller than the one I got.

I plan to grow escarole, endive, and radicchio again this year. I ordered seeds for Castelfranco radicchio yesterday because I love variegated. (I was about to say plants because I like spotted lettuces and spotted dry beans... but I also like spotted cowrie shells, tortoiseshell cats, and appaloosa horses!)

Here's an endive and an escarole in the OSFG at one per square (chervil to the left, crosnes behind.)


These were the back-ups that I sowed indoors, and then couldn't just cull. Since some other things didn't survive, they each got their own square.

I also grew some at 4/sq w/ lettuce again this year. Here's a square (photographed several weeks earlier than the above) with an endive, escarole, and 2 lettuces. The plan was to harvest the lettuces to give the other two more room, but I think I've only harvested one of them so far.