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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Florence fennel

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Florence fennel
  • Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:32:32 -0500

Thanks for the good info in F. fennel, Dieter, espec that it is such a nutritious vegetable. I'm encouraged by your cultivation details to explore its parameters and make more use of it.

~Harvey

Dieter Brand wrote:
I suppose that Florence fennel is the type that forms a bulb? That is one of
my favorite vegetables. According to Hildegard von Bingen, besides spelt and
chestnuts, it is one of the healthiest vegetables in existence. It takes a
bit to acquire a taste for it, but once you like it you can get hooked, and
there are numerous very delicious recipes for eating if cooked or raw.

In the hot and arid Mediterranean climate I live in, I can only grow it in
the autumn to spring period. During the summer, when it is too hot and dry,
it will bolt. I grow transplants for planting in September or February.
When the bulb is big enough, I cut above the ground and leave the root in
place. In my climate, they are perennial or at least biannual. Which means
that the following season, five to ten bulbs may grow again from the same
rootstock. I usually reduce the number to about five so that the remaining
bulbs will grow bigger. This is very practical since I don’t have to plant
them again and since they will grow earlier from the existing rootstock than
the newly planted fennel.

They have very modest nutrient requirements, which makes them ideal for
growing without fertilizers or manure as I do. They do pose a problem for
companion planting though. I found that beans won’t grow anywhere near
fennel. Salads seem to do alright near fennel. Fennel is originally a
Mediterranean plant and I don’t know how well it will do in a cold climate.

Dieter


--
Harvey in northern Virginia
www.themodernhomestead.us

If you want to be happy for a few hours, get drunk. If you want to be happy
for a weekend, get married. If you want to be happy for a week, butcher a
pig. If you want to be happy for all your life long, become a gardener.





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