Italiko Red Italian Dandelion brings vibrant crimson color to your salad bowl, ready to harvest in just 40 days. This open-pollinated chicory cultivar grows as a compact bush and produces tender, harvestable leaves at 3-6 inches, making it perfect for cut-and-come-again harvesting throughout the season. Unlike its pale cousins, the deep red coloring isn't just beautiful; it signals a variety bred specifically for fresh eating in mixed greens. Best grown in cool weather with soil between pH 5.5 and 6.5, it rewards gardeners with multiple harvests from a single planting.
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The red foliage sets this chicory apart visually and practically, offering home gardeners a way to add color and nutrition to everyday salads without waiting months for a crop. Harvest begins at just 40 days, and because you cut an inch above the soil, the plant regrows for a second or even third cutting within two weeks. The compact bush habit means it works in containers, garden rows, or tight spaces, and the tender young leaves deliver the chicory character people seek without bitterness when picked young.
Grown as a salad green, Italiko Red Italian Dandelion shines in fresh mixed greens where its red leaves provide both visual contrast and a distinctive chicory flavor. The young, tender leaves are typically harvested and eaten raw, though they can also be lightly cooked. Home gardeners and small-scale producers value it for its repeated harvests from a single sowing and its striking appearance in bowls and on plates.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Direct sow seeds into prepared garden beds or containers. Space seeds about 1/4 inch deep in rows or scattered across the bed. Keep soil consistently moist until germination occurs. Thin seedlings once they have true leaves to your desired spacing.
Begin harvesting when leaves reach 3-6 inches in length, typically around 40 days after sowing. Using a sharp knife, cut leaves about an inch above the soil surface, making sure to cut above the basal plate where new growth emerges. This technique allows the plant to regrow cleanly for a second or third harvest within 5-14 days, depending on growing conditions and how many leaves you remove. For salad mixes, harvest individual outer leaves or cut the entire plant down and let it regenerate.
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