Description
Key Facts
- Ideal for use in fish, potatoes, soups, and other dishes.
- Easy to grow
- Takes about 3 months to grow
- Seeds available online – Available from Amazon
.
Background
- Plain or fresh chives are native to Europe, Asia and North America.
- With a onion flavour it’s a very versatile ingredient.
- Either used as a garnish in ingredient for many dishes.
- Days from seed to harvest – about 90 (3 months)
- About 30 to 60 cm high
Typical recipes
Plain chives are a very popular plant to grow.
Most people will be aware of plain or fresh chives. they tend to have a onion flavour and are often used as a garnish. These are often diced and used are as an ingredient for fish, potatoes, soups, and other dishes.
Example recipes are
.
How to Grow & Use plain chives
There are 3 main stages in growing chives:
1. Propogation
You can either sow the seeds straight into soil or use growing blocks (in the same method as parsley). The difference compared to a herb like parsley is that chive seeds will germinate easily and quickly – usually within 10 days.
When sowing in soil
- Sow them 13 mm deep
- And keep an ideal temperature of 16° – 22° C.
- And thin seedlings 15 mm between plants
.
2. Transplanting & Growing
If you are transplanting to a hydroponic or aquaponic system
- Transplant them after 4 to 6 weeks
- They will grow at their best at a temperature of about 19°C.
- And need at least 14 hours of light per day
.
If you are growing them in soil please note they need plenty of moisture.
3. Harvesting
You can start cutting them when the plants are at least 15 cm tall.
- Cut the leaves 5 cms above the base of the plant.
- Make sure to leave enough foliage to help the plant regenerate.
- At most cut upto 2/3 of the plant
.
Minze Vries –
Nice easy herbs to grow – not one of my core ones but worth it if you have the space