Permaculture- Chicory Crop, Asteraceae family Common chicory is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant of the dandelion family Asteraceae, usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Many varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons, or roots, which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and food additive. Chicory root is primarily composed of inulin, a prebiotic that encourages the growth of healthy gut bacteria. Chicory is used for liver and heart health, constipation, swelling, and other conditions, but there is no good evidence to support its use. In foods, chicory leaves are often eaten like celery, and the roots and leaf buds are boiled and eaten. Chicory is also used as a cooking spice and to flavor foods and beverages.

1. CHICORY
Submitted By
Tanuja. M

2. Contents
1) Botanical Classification of Chicory
2) Introduction of Chicory
3) Description of the Chicory
4) Floral Biology of Chicory
5) A Day in the life of Chicory Flower
6) Isolation of Seed Crops
7) Preparation of Land
8) Cultivation package and practices
9) Drying and Storage of seeds
10) Varieties of Chicory
11) Economic importance of Chicory
a) pH
b) Seed rate
c) Sowing time
d) Spacing
e) Irrigation / Rainfall
f) Nutrient Management
g) Grazing/Cutting
h) Harvesting & Yield

3. Botanical Classification of Chicory
◦ Kingdom - Plantae
◦ Order - Asterales
◦ Family - Asteraceae
◦ Genus - Cichorium L.
◦ Species - Cichorium intybus

4. Introduction
◦ Chicory (Cichorium intybus), blue-flowered perennial plant of the family Asteraceae.
◦ Native to Europe and introduced into the United States late in the 19th century.
◦ It is cultivated extensively in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany and to
some extent in North America.
◦ Its leaves are eaten as a vegetable or in a salad, and the roots may be boiled and eaten
with butter.
◦ The plant is grown as a fodder or herbage crop for cattle.
◦ Chicory root can be roasted and ground to impart additional colour, body, and bitterness
to coffee; in the United States this practice is especially popular in the city of New Orleans.

5. Introduction
◦ Chicory is a root crop, which is presently used as a coffee additive or as its substitute and
the leaves and roots of which have certain medicinal characteristics.
◦ This plant is supposed to have descended from the wild chicory (wild succory, blue
sailors) which is often seen along roadsides with its blue flowers.
◦ It is related to the endive Cichorium intybus L. var. folisum Hegi, a plant that has thick
leaves.
◦ The roots of this plant were used as vegetables and salads as they were reported to be
stomachic (Baumann, 1982).
◦ Its infusion was supposed to be good for the liver, kidneys and stomach (Baumann, 1982
and Franke, 1981)

6. Description of Chicory
 Plant: Broad-leafed perennial with thick, deep taproot, belonging to the daisy family.
Prior to flowering, it produces one or more basal rosettes of large, soft, lush leaves with
short stalks. On flowering, it develops into a sprawling bush over 1 m high. Plants
typically survive for 2 - 3 years, and up to 5 years in higher rainfall areas with careful
management.
 Stems: In late spring, stiff spreading flowering stems emerge from the leafy crown,
growing to a height of 1.5m. They are hairy, hollow, branching and sparsely leafed,
exuding a milky sap if cut.
 Leaves: Rosette leaves are 5 - 15 cm long, oblong or lance-shaped, and covered with
rough hairs on both the upper and lower surfaces. Leaf margins vary with
cultivar. Stem leaves are much smaller.
 Flowers: Blue daisy flowers 25 - 35 mm across.
 Seeds: The seeds are about 3mm long, dark brown, wedge-shaped, and 5-angled

7. A glance of Chicory Flower
◦ A Chicory “flower” is, botanically speaking, an inflorescence, that is, a group of flowers
(what I’ll call a flower head).
◦ This means that the twenty or so “petals” of the apparent flower are actually parts of
individual small flowers that are called florets.
◦ Each floret is a complete flower that consists of five fused petals (note the five “teeth” at
the outer margin), a stamen tube and a pistil (see diagram). So a chicory flower head is a
kind of “super flower”— an enhancement of flowering in which individual flowers
become the parts of a larger integrated whole.
◦ All members of the Aster family, to which chicory belongs, have such “super flowers;” a
close relative is the common dandelion.

8. Specialty of Chicory Flower
◦ One special feature of the chicory is that typically each individual flower head opens only
for part of one day, while the whole plant opens new flower heads each day for many
weeks from midsummer into early fall. It is not a plant with one burst of flowering.
◦ Rather, it produces many little daily bursts of blue over a long period of time. It brings
about a fascinating synthesis of short-lived individual flowers and longevity in the
flowering process of the whole plant.

9. Floral Biology of Chicory

10. A Day in the Life of Chicory Flower

11. A Day in the Life of Chicory Flower

12. A Day in the Life of
Chicory Flower

13. Isolation of Chicory Seed Crop
◦ The crop raised for seed production should be separated from other fields of the same crop species by a
minimum distance, which varies from one crop to the other. This distance is known as isolation distance
◦ Allogamy is the preferred reproductive strategy in C. intybus. Different varieties, landraces or, more generally,
populations have to be considered as interfertile, in other words, cross-pollination due to visitor insects and
cross-fertilization are possible. To avoid this situation and any possible contamination, spatial isolation needs
to be strictly respected in different fields (1500 to 2000 m) of the seed production areas.
◦ Seed producers must also take into account the presence of wild plants, which need to be removed from fallow
fields and roadsides. The cultural practices applied to chicory seed crops during the vegetative phase are much
the same as those used in growing these plants for the vegetable market, though a lower plant density
(approximately five plants per square meter, rather than 7–9) is used.

14. Preparation of land
Chicory likes a sunny spot with well-drained soil.
If you can, prepare soil for spring sowing by digging in the winter, adding plenty of well-
rotted manure.
Remove weeds, any very large stones and rake to leave a level finish.
A week before sowing sprinkle a general purpose fertiliser (of approximately 30g per
square metre) over the area and rake into the surface.

15. Package & Practices of Chicory
◦ pH & Soil- It can grow in pH 4.5 -8.5.It prefers well drained, deep, fertile soils, but will
grow on heavier soils providing they are not prone to waterlogging for extended periods.
◦ Light: Prefers full sun.
◦ Shade: Tolerates light to moderate shade.
◦ Moisture: Medium moisture requirements.
◦ Seeding rate and Row spacing- 30 cm rows & 3-5 kg/ha seed).
◦ Fertilizer application- 75:70:120kg/ha NPK ratio and 10-30kg/ha Sulphur suggested.
◦ Rainfall- Chicory is adapted to a wide variety of climates, from summer dominant to
winter dominant rainfall areas, receiving 400 mm to 800 mm annual rainfall. It requires
some summer rain or irrigation over summer to perform best.

16. Sowing of Chicory Seeds
◦ Sow seeds in July or August, for plants ready to be picked from October to December.
◦ To sow in rows, stretch a length of string between two canes to make a straight line and
make a shallow trench, about 1cm deep, with a garden cane.
◦ Sow seeds thinly, then cover, water and label.
◦ Alternatively, fill a large 45cm (18in) diameter pot with compost, level and tap to settle -
aim to leave a 2cm (1in) gap between the surface of the compost and the rim of the pot.
Sow seeds thinly across the surface and cover with a 1cm (0.5in) layer of vermiculite.
◦ Water and stand in a cold frame, or in a slightly shaded space in the garden.

17. ◦ Grazing/cutting- Plant height should be maintained between 5 cm and 40 cm. Grazing
pressure in summer can be manipulated to promote leaf growth and delay stem elongation
and flowering, or to encourage flowering, seed-set and regeneration. Grazing, slashing or
cutting just prior to prolonged rainfall should be avoided as this can result in stem disease
and increased plant mortality. Plants are susceptible to damage from trampling and
overgrazing, particularly when dormant. Chicory makes good quality silage but does not
make good hay as leaves are brittle and break up on drying.
◦ Pollination: Self-Pollinating/Self-Fertile. Also pollinated by bees.
◦ Flowering: April - October (varies tremendously on the variety and zone).
◦ Propagation: Typically from seed. Self-seeds easily. Large plants may be divided.
◦ Maintenance: Almost none. Consider cutting back the seed heads if you don’t want
seedlings to spread. Although, this is a plus in a Forest Garden almost all the time.

18. Harvesting & Yield of Chicory
◦ Harvesting-Year round. Greens are most tender and less bitter before flowering (Spring),
but can be harvest through the growing season. The roots are best harvested Autumn
through Winter. Use a sharp knife to cut off the heads of sugarloaf varieties in late autumn,
while varieties grown for their red leaves (which are green for much of the summer)
should be harvested after a period of cold weather - only then do they turn completely
dark.
◦ Yield-Seed yields have ranged from 200 to 500 kg/ha, with some growers harvesting over
700 kg/ha

19. Drying and Storage of Seeds
◦ Use fresh, may be stored as lettuce for up to a week. While there is no reliable information on storage of roots,
I would imagine that roasted roots should last for some time before needing to be ground for coffee, although
the flavour likely diminishes with time.
◦ When the chicory plant is fully grown and ready to be harvested (depending on sowing, usually between
August and November). Firstly, the leaves and the root needs to be separated. In this case the chicory leaves
are considered as an organic waste but in other countries the leaves are used in salads.
◦ The required part of chicory plant for chicory coffee production – root – is then forwarded to the factory. The
root is cut in smaller pieces (the size varies from couple of mm to cm) for it to be easier and faster to dry.
◦ When the cut roots are roasted then comes grounding to prepare the right consistency for roasting. As one of
the last pre-treatment process comes roasting when the coffee is fully prepared for the further processing to
the market. In the result granulated chicory coffee is obtained.

20. The above picture shows Chicory Coffee
production process.

21. ◦ To make a different type of coffee, for example, instant coffee, after the roasting process the product is
percolated, and lastly – spray dried.
◦ As the process itself may appear the same for all chicory production companies, the methods that are used in
production could vary in each step.
◦ A common practice to sun-dry the chicory roots which in this case is not possible because the average
temperature in the summer is not high enough for chicory root to dry efficiently. The chicory is dried in the
dryer that consumes a biggest share of energy. The next most energy consuming process is roasting which is
done at 200–250 °C for about two hours.
◦ Due to warm climate in India it is possible to sun-dry the chicory in temperature of 40–45 °C which
takes about 3–4 days for chicory root to achieve desired moisture content. Sun-drying is one of the most
used drying technique but in recent years the sun-drying has been replaced with mechanical drying to
improve whole drying process.
◦ In India and other foreign countries chicory coffee is made without any additives but the attention is put on
different variations of chicory itself, for example, powder, dried cubes, roasted cubes, roasted granules, even
frozen granules of chicory in the size of up to 5 mm .
◦ As for chicory drying, the procedure of this process varies a lot between productions plants. In some places
it was even seen that they do not dry the chicory root at all, and that only pre-treatment for the chicory root
is roasting.
◦ Usually, the average roasting temperature in India is 140–180 °C.

22. ◦ Seed production represents the conclusive phase of breeding programs and, as with any other cultivated
species, is of paramount importance for the success of the crop. In chicory, the seed is the only plant material
used for the commercial propagation of varieties and planting, and it often determines the quantity of yield
and the qualitative commercial standard of the crop.
◦ The fruit (seed) is an achene, obovoid to cylindrical, weakly ribbed, and light brown to completely brown
when ripe.
◦ Allogamy is the preferred reproductive strategy in C. intybus. Different varieties, landraces or, more
generally, populations have to be considered as interfertile, in other words, cross-pollination due to visitor
insects and cross-fertilization are possible. To avoid this situation and any possible contamination, spatial
isolation needs to be strictly respected in different fields (1500 to 2000 m) of the seed production areas.
Seed Production in Chicory

23. ◦ Seed producers must also take into account the presence of wild plants, which need to be removed from
fallow fields and roadsides. The cultural practices applied to chicory seed crops during the vegetative phase
are much the same as those used in growing these plants for the vegetable market, though a lower plant
density (approximately five plants per square meter, rather than 7–9) is used.
◦ During the vegetative period, fields are repeatedly inspected to remove off-type or diseased plants.
◦ All types of leaf chicories require vernalization to differentiate and produce a seed stalk. Thus, a seed crop
needs to be sown in autumn to produce seed the next spring. If seed in the same year of sowing is desired,
seeding operations need to occur in winter (end of January to beginning of February), ideally under
protection, to let the small seed or transplanted plants be naturally vernalized in the field by the cold
temperatures at this time of the year.
◦ Another option is to seed in autumn in greenhouses using Styrofoam cell trays and to store the seedlings in
cold greenhouses until March. Vernalization will also be assured and flowering will hopefully occur at the
same time. However, the genetic control of flower induction and differentiation in chicory has to be better
understood.

24. Economic Importance of Chicory
◦ Edible Greens – some varieties are developed for commercial production of salad leaves;
a great, bitter, nutty-tasting leaf – perfect addition to mixed green salads; leaves can be
cooked as any other green (just don't cook too long), and this reduces the bitterness.
◦ Edible Roots – roasted, ground, and used as a coffee substitute.
◦ General insect (especially bees) nectar and pollen plant.
◦ Insect shelter plant (especially hover flies, spiders, and parasitic wasps).
◦ Dynamic Accumulator- Especially potassium and calcium.
◦ Pioneer Species
◦ Dye Plant - bluish dye from the leaves.
◦ Pasture/Forage Species for ruminant animals.

25. Varieties of Chicory
‘Choice’
'Oasis’
‘Puna I’
‘Puna II’
This variety is more winter-active than most others, which leads to greater persistence and
longevity.
'Forage Feast'
A variety from France used for human consumption and also for wildlife plots, where animals
such as deer might graze. It is resistant to bolting. It is very cold-hardy, and being lower in
tannins than other forage varieties, is suitable for human consumption.

26. Thank You