How to Grow Florence Fennel

Florence fennel also called Sweet Fennel and Finocchio in Italy is one of my absolute favourite plants to grow.  People believe that they are growing the fennel bulb when what you actually are growing is the swollen overlapping leaf stalks.

Tricky

It’s tricky –  this is the best way to think about fennel but by get everything right it can really grow very quickly and you get a fantastic succulent crop from these flattish aniseed flavoured bulbs.

Marsh plant

Originally wild fennel was a Mediterranean marsh plant and to grow it best you need to remember that it thrives in those moist warm conditions.

Speed is of the essence!

You need to grow fennel quickly, if it’s checked at all by cold or because of dryness it will quickly ‘bolt’ and run to seed .
Fennel thrives in a sunny sheltered bed that has a rich moisture retentive soil, but that is also free draining so, a raised bed that has lots of organic material added to it is absolutely perfect if you could plant it after something like early potatoes which can break up the ground that is really perfect.

Timing

If you sow fennel too early in the year it won’t form the swollen bulbs that we’re trying to get, but you can sow it early if you want to pick for ‘Baby fennel’ or immature fennel. The best way to do this is to sow directly into the ground in drills quite thickly about a centimetre deep, spacing them a about 2 centimetres apart and then just cover with soil. You can also cover with fleece to retain moisture and some heat.

I don’t sow fennel until after the longest day and use the following two techniques:

Sow it directly into the ground in drills quite thickly about a centimetre deep space them 2 centimetres apart and then just cover with soil.

For larger bulbs by far the best way is to actually grow them in module’s and that’s because even pricking out fennel can actually stimulate it and shock it into bolting.  Fill your modules with a mixture of multipurpose compost and add about 20 to 25% vermiculite as this evens out the moisture in the compost and I found over the years that this makes a significant difference.

Spacing
When planting out 15 cm apart is perfect, the reason I do this is because I’m going to thin them so they’ll end up about 30 cm apart for the ones to grow into the largest fennel bulbs.  Remember to look out for slugs certainly in the early stages and you have to keep them well watered – if there’s any chance of them drying out at all get out the watering can, you can also mulch to retain some of the moisture and it will also keep down weeds, don’t be tempted to hoe around them and if needed hand weed.

People used to earth the bulbs up but I’ve never found this necessary and surprisingly for something that is so fussy it will tolerate a light frost but covering with a cloche or fleece prolongs cropping. You can also grow fennel successfully in 13cm(5inch) pots if you have limited space available.

You can pull young fennel at about eight weeks and the actual bulbs themselves will mature in about 14 weeks

Bonus crop
Rather than pulling the mature bulbs out cut the bulbs  straight across leaving about 2 1/2 cm in the ground, by doing this you will find that these roots will sprout and produce small really tasty shoots, they are great in salads and soups. and what’s really interesting is when they are trimmed  back they seem much better able to withstand frost.  If your fennel does bolt leave one as the fresh seeds can be used for seasoning or dried and used in cooking.

Fennel will keep successfully after lifting for several weeks if stored in a cool dry place.

Varieties

Montebianco              for large bulbs
Fennel of Palma        Succulant Sow till the end of August
Romanesque             Some of the biggest bulbs  sow March- May

Cooking

When it comes to cooking, fennel bulbs are succulent with an aniseed flavour and a beautiful rounded taste.  Fennel go superbly with fish and in Winter casseroles.  You can also use them in raw salads where it adds  areally crunchy texture as well as  taste.

Fennel is absolutely delicious slow roasted in the oven with chicken and my favourite is to actually slice it, then roasted  in “Noisette”  butter with some grated Parmesan cheese on top

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