🥬 The Best 20 Varieties of Chicory to Grow: Tips, Facts, and Information

🌱 Introduction: Why Grow Chicory?

Chicory is a versatile, hardy crop that earns its place in both vegetable gardens and allotments. From crisp leaves for salads to dense heads perfect for grilling or roasting, chicory offers variety, flavour, and reliability, especially in cooler seasons when other crops struggle.

This guide covers the best 20 chicory varieties to grow, with practical tips, key characteristics, and growing notes to help you choose the right types for your garden, growing space, and kitchen.

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🥬 The Best 20 Chicory Varieties to Grow

1. Witloof (Belgian Endive)

Grown for forcing, producing tight pale heads with a mild bitterness. Ideal for winter harvests.

2. Brussels Witloof

A classic forcing variety known for uniform, compact chicons and reliable results.

3. Zoom F1

Modern hybrid witloof chicory with excellent disease resistance and consistent forcing performance.

4. Radicchio di Chioggia

Round, cabbage-like heads with deep red leaves and white veins. Great for salads and grilling.

5. Radicchio di Treviso

Elongated heads with elegant red leaves. Sweeter and milder after cold weather.

6. Palla Rossa

Popular Italian radicchio producing firm red heads with balanced bitterness.

7. Rossa di Verona

Slow-growing variety with excellent flavour that improves after frost exposure.

8. Variegata di Castelfranco

Attractive cream and green leaves speckled with red. Mild and decorative as well as edible.

9. Pain de Sucre

Tall, pointed heads with pale green leaves and a milder taste than many chicories.

10. Grumolo Verde

Loose-leaf Italian chicory harvested young or mature. Cold-tolerant and sweet after frost.

11. Grumolo Rosso

Red-leaved version of grumolo with increased cold hardiness and richer colour.

12. Catalogna

Loose, upright leaves used widely in Mediterranean cooking. Best harvested young.

13. Catalogna Puntarelle

Specialist variety grown for its tender central shoots, prized in Italian cuisine.

14. Sugarloaf Chicory

Large, pale heads with minimal bitterness. Excellent for beginners and winter growing.

15. Bianca di Milano

Compact, pale green heads with a crisp texture and mild flavour.

16. Rossa di Treviso Precoce

Earlier-maturing Treviso type, suitable for shorter growing seasons.

17. Rossa di Treviso Tardivo

Late-harvest Treviso chicory, known for exceptional flavour after cold exposure.

18. Pan di Zucchero

Another sugarloaf-style chicory with upright growth and good disease resistance.

19. Zuccherina di Trieste

Cut-and-come-again variety producing tender leaves over a long season.

20. Bianca di Scarola

Escarole-type chicory with broad leaves, excellent for soups and cooking.

🌱 Growing Tips for Chicory Success

• Sow from late spring to early summer for autumn and winter harvests
• Avoid very rich soil—excess nitrogen increases leafiness but reduces flavour
• Chicory prefers cool temperatures and improves in taste after frost
• Keep soil consistently moist to prevent excessive bitterness
• For forcing types, lift roots in autumn and force indoors in darkness

🌿 Choosing the Right Chicory for Your Garden

• For salads: Sugarloaf, Castelfranco, Zuccherina di Trieste
• For cooking: Radicchio, escarole, catalogna
• For winter harvests: Witloof, Treviso, grumolo
• For beginners: Sugarloaf, Bianca di Milano

Growing more than one type gives harvests across multiple seasons.

🧠 Key Takeaway

Chicory is far more than one crop—it’s a family of vegetables offering everything from mild, crisp leaves to bold, bitter flavours that shine in cooking. By choosing the right varieties and timing sowings carefully, chicory can provide dependable harvests from autumn through winter when little else is growing.