DIY Network

Florence Fennel Florence Fennel From "Fresh from the Garden" episode DFFG-213

Figure A

Florence fennel has a basal bulb that is cooked and used as a vegetable. Both the bulb and the fennel's foliage have a sweet, licorice-like flavor. The foliage looks like that of a carrot (figure A), and in fact fennel is a member of the carrot family. Because Florence fennel grows best in cool temperatures, it's typically planted as a spring or fall crop. Most varieties of Florence fennel take between 75 and 120 days to mature from seed.

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Florence fennel is hardy in USDA zones 7-10 but may be grown as an annual in zones 4-9. Bok choi is a cool-season annual crop that may be grown in zones 3-10.

Figure B

• This may seem obvious, but the most important thing about planting fennel is to make sure you've planted the right seed! Florence fennel, which is grown as a vegetable, looks very much like regular fennel, which is grown as an herb. The only real difference between them is that Florence fennel has a bulblike growth at the base (figure B), and regular fennel does not.
  

• Some seed companies sell Florence fennel by its Italian name, finocchio (rhymes with the name of a certain little wooden boy!). One excellent variety of Florence fennel is called Fennel 'Perfection'.

• People who garden in climates with long, cool summers often sow fennel seed directly into the garden. Other gardeners may want to get a head start by sowing fennel seeds indoors four weeks before transplanting.

	Figure C
	Figure D
	Figure E

1. To start fennel indoors, you can use plastic cell trays and a sterile seed-starting mix from the local garden center (figure C). Using a sterile mix rather than plain garden soil will help keep the seedlings healthy.

2. Fill the cell packs with the soil mix and moisten the soil mix with water (figure D). Place two seeds in each cell, sowing each about 1/4" deep. Fennel seeds germinate best when soil temperatures are between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, so place a soil thermometer in one of the cell packs. Monitor the temperature daily and make sure the soil remains moist.

3. A soil thermometer is a must-have item for the serious vegetable gardener (figure E). All seeds have a specified soil temperature range in which they germinate best, whether they're sown indoors or out, and a soil thermometer takes the guesswork out of the equation.

4. Once the fennel seeds sprout, thin them to one plant per cell and put the seedlings under a fluorescent light that is kept on for 14 hours a day.

5. When the seedlings have real leaves on them, mix an all-purpose water-soluble fertilizer at half-strength and apply it once a week.

6. The week before you are ready to transplant the seedlings into the garden, begin the hardening-off process. Hardening-off means gradually acclimatizing the seedlings to the outdoors by placing them out of doors for a few hours each day. Begin by placing them in the shade for an hour or two; then, each succeeding day, expose them to a bit more sun and leave them out a little bit longer.

Figure F

7. With the fennel almost ready to go into the garden, you need to get the bed ready. Be aware that you need to be especially careful where you plant fennel (figure F). Like most other vegetables, fennel likes full sun, a neutral pH level and well-drained, fertile soil; it's fennel is considered a "bad companion" for most other plants, however, because its roots release a chemical that tends to inhibit the growth of many nearby plants, especially beans and tomatoes.

8. It's easy to separate plants in a raised-bed garden, since the roots of vegetables planted in one bed can't mingle with the roots of those planted in another. If you're not gardening in a raised bed, you should keep fennel at least 6' away from other vegetables. The only plant that grows well next to fennel is mint, so if you want to double up, you can plant the two together in the same bed.

Figure G

9. It's the fennel root, not the top growth, that acts as a growth inhibitor for many other plants, so don't hesitate to add fennel to your garden as long as you can keep it confined to its own raised bed or individual plot (figure G).

10. When you're ready to plant, take each seedling from its cell pack, being careful not to tug on its crown but to push the seedling out from the bottom. The plants go in the ground at the same depth they were growing indoors and should be spaced 10"-12" apart.

11. To water the seedlings, use a fine mister spray, since a heavy shot of water will knock the young plants down. A gentle rain or a fine spray will settle the soil nicely around the roots and get the fennel off to a good start.